New Choices
by these dreams go on
Summary: Sequel to New Paths and New Lives. Caroline celebrates the winter break by heading to New Orleans to holiday with Klaus, completely unaware that enemies up and down the east coast are moving against everyone she loves. Before the end, she'll be forced to make choices that will impact not just her life, but the lives of everyone around her. Klaroline/Kalijah.
1. Caroline

A/N- Here we go everyone, the sequel I've been promising for a while and waited until the last possible moment to start delivering on- whilst writing several chapters of another story that I won't publish for a while.  
For those of you following Moving In- there's quite a few more chapters to go there but there won't be any spoilers here that I didn't already throw into the epilogue of New Paths (read it again, hint: red)  
For those of you following Darkness to Half-Light- STOP, there will never be any more chapters there, it is complete as it will ever be. I'm sorry but that is all there is to it, favourite but don't follow please you make me feel so guilty.  
Anyhow, I own nothing associated with Vampire Diaries or the Originals.  
Please enjoy.

* * *

'WINTER IS COMING!'

Caroline rolled her eyes at the ridiculous poster hanging in the stairwell of her dorm building as she finishes the trek from across campus to her room. Pulling her cardigan tighter over her chest as it once again slips down and exposes her bare shoulder, she steps away from the well-lit path to cut across the grass that turns silver in the twilight.

She'd had her last tutorial of the semester, half the class hadn't decided to show up so the lecturer had reconvened the students to one of the quieter cafes on campus. She and ten other students had sat around on old leather couches, drunk coffee with their professor and casually discussed the influence of society and world politics had on the performance of Shakespearean plays.

All she'd needed was a beret and it would have been a dream come true.

She'd felt so mature, so grown-up in that café.

But now, she was stepping into the fourth floor of her dorm building, where she, Elena and Bonnie had the best room and remembered that she was only nineteen.

The overhead lights cast a golden glow along the wooden floors and plastered walls. The darkening twilight outside gave the hallway an even warmer feel.

Dozens of students occupied the hall, chatting and laughing, making their way back from the showers, holding dinner plates in their hands- or more commonly alcohol.

Caroline smiled and greeted the people she knew, stepping over the legs of the people propped up on the floor. So many humans in such a small space filled the area with heat and the scent of life, the scent of blood and reminded her that she hadn't fed since last night.

So she feels a small sense of relief when she sees her dorm room up ahead, the door decorated with a poster that she herself had designed and been complimented on many times,

_Bonnie, Caroline, Elena  
_  
Below it was a whiteboard and marker for people to leave them messages, she checked as she slid her key into the lock and saw Stefan's messy handwriting,

"_True Friends Stab You In the Front- Damon says Hi!" _

She laughed and stepped into the dorm room, glancing around and making sure nothing supernatural was standing out before leaving the door open and dropping her books on her bed.

She falls onto her bed with a loud sigh and simply enjoys the moment.

She'd made it.

They'd made it.

One successful semester at Whitmore College.

Who would have thought?

Certainly nobody who knew their backstory.

Death, destruction, torture- both physical and psychological, and the frequent threat of supernatural apocalypse hadn't been the healthiest setting for them.

Some of them had barely managed to graduate high school considering all the days they'd had to miss or all the times they'd had to redo their homework because the papers had been blood stained.

Yet when summer had turned to fall, and they had gone a few months without people trying to kill them, they had breathed a sigh of relief and properly considered the option of enrolling at university.

They could have gone to any university they wanted in the world but Whitmore had made top of the list, beating the Ivy League colleges with its proximity to Mystic Falls.

After all, Jeremy Gilbert still had a year of high school to finish and Damon had volunteered to stay behind and make sure both Elena's brother and the town made it through the next twelve months.

So they'd packed their suitcases, thrown them into their various cars and taken the two hour drive up to the campus where Caroline had compelled the girls the best dorm room available. She'd even found a single room with ensuite for Stefan but he'd decided to switch out for a regular two room, having never shared before.

And now, after endless essays, exams, project deadlines, in-class tests and group presentations, the winter break had finally come to Whitmore College.

* * *

It was six o'clock on a chilly, dark evening and the mood around campus was a mixture of utter exhaustion and elation at the upcoming holidays. Staff and students alike were preparing to abandon the campus in a mass exodus, eager to get back to their hometowns as soon as humanly possible.

Caroline however wasn't heading home for this break.

Instead, she was driving down to New Orleans, where Klaus Mikaelson- the Original Hybrid- ruled over the French Quarter and was waiting for her.

She exhaled and thought on that.

She had made the promise to visit him last summer after she'd finally given into her desires and made love to him, he'd had to return to his kingdom but hadn't wanted to leave her so this had been their compromise.

It was strange but the thought of living with a guy for two weeks, sleeping in the same bed, eating meals with him seemed so grown up it freaked her out.

She was going to see Klaus Mikaelson and the thought of sharing a bathroom freaked her out more than the thought of throwing herself into a kingdom of vampires, witches, werewolves and Katherine Pierce.

Shaking her head and looking down at the suitcase sitting open on her armchair, Caroline wondered for the umpteenth time whether or not she should pack a ball gown.

It had actually been a rude awakening for the Mystic Falls girls to leave their small town and discover that the rest of the world didn't host weekly formal dinners, masquerade balls, fancy picnics or charity balls.

Of course they were in a university town so they had parties from Thursday to Sunday but these were the kind of parties where short dresses was the suggested attire, not full length gowns accessorised with family jewellery.

So Caroline, Bonnie and Elena had packed up their gowns- which had only been gathering dust in their closets and shipped them home a month into semester.

And of course, Caroline hadn't even considered needing a ball gown until she'd begun packing, but now that she thought about it, it seemed more and more likely that she'd be attending an event in the not too distant future where she'd have to wear one.

So it looked like she'd have to stop off at home tomorrow after all.

Great.

To say her mom had been unhappy when news of her winter plans had reached her would be a colossal understatement.

It had been one prolonged shouting match that had begun in person in Mystic Falls when Caroline had gone home for Sunday lunch and continued via calls, email and text until she had turned her phone off and refused to speak to her mother until she calmed down.

Another three days and they'd met up for lunch while Caroline had explained that she wanted to go to New Orleans and see Klaus on her own volition, she wasn't compelled or blackmailed.

She had complete control of the situation, she had been the one to suggest when she would visit and he wouldn't and couldn't pressure her into any emotional or physical commitments.

She had then sat quietly and listened while her mom listed every single bad thing Klaus had done since the day he'd stormed into their lives in Mystic Falls and afterward had just said,

"I know mom, believe me I _know_ and I won't forget no matter how much I want to but…I can't ignore that he is trying to change. His father beat and tortured him his whole life, his mother cursed him and he felt that could never trust his siblings. He spent one thousand years being chased by Mikael and unable to break his curse. That would turn anyone into a monster and he never had to but he's trying to become a good person and I have to figure out what it is I feel for him because denying that I feel anything at all for him just hurts me and those I love"

Her mother hadn't been convinced and they'd reached a stalemate before eventually deciding not to discuss the matter further with each hoping the other person would come to their senses.

Caroline had been planning to set off early tomorrow, arrive in New Orleans as soon as possible at which point her mom would have to accept the fact that she was spending her holidays with Klaus.

Maybe she could just risk it, turn up in NOLA and if there was a ball, Klaus could buy her another ball gown.

No, that wouldn't be fair. Not that he would mind, hell he'd probably jump at the chance to buy clothes for her, jewellery too, but if her elective in Gender Studies had taught her anything this semester it was that she would never be content to be a man's trophy girlfriend.

The next diamond bracelet she owned she was going to buy herself dammit.

This was not getting her toiletries packed.

* * *

She pulls herself to her feet just as the bedroom door flies open and Elena bursts in, kicking the door closed behind her and jumping across the room, landing on her bed with enough force to make it slam into the wall and the wooden slats creak in protest.

Stefan arrives seconds later, breathless and pushing his way through the door, "Elena, I swear to God I will break up with you!"

Caroline snorts and sees the bundle of cans in Elena's arms, it looks like her best friend has got into the energy drinks again.

If there is only one piece of knowledge that the Mystic Falls coven has attained this semester it is that Elena Gilbert has a shockingly low tolerance for energy drinks matched only by her quickset addiction to them.

"I call your bluff" the spritely brunette teases as she cracks her first can and starts sculling, dancing off the bed as Stefan lunges for her and jumping clear across the room to perch on the top of the bookshelf, balancing on tiptoe, bringing to mind a ballerina.

Stefan eyes the bookshelf, clearly contemplating tackling her down to the floor as Elena tosses a now empty can at his head and starts on her second drink.

Caroline is laughing at the scene when she hears a loud throat-clearing, Bonnie is hurriedly closing the door and pointedly locking it before hurrying to the window and drawing the curtains closed.

"Have you all completely lost your minds?!" she demands angrily, "Anyone could have seen you!"

The three vampires belatedly remember that they aren't in the Salvatore Boarding House but in their dormitory at Whitmore where gravity-defying movements were worthy of notice.

Stefan grimaces and holds out his arms for Elena who drops down, wrapping her legs around his waist and looking over his shoulder to their friend,

"We're sorry Bonnie, we got carried away, end of semester and all. Plus Damon's driving down tomorrow and…"

Caroline suddenly takes avid interest in checking her suitcase, making sure everything is packed as neatly as possible and picking up a few things just to put them back down again so she can at least pretend she is busy. But while she might be physically idle her brain is repeating the same mantra at a million miles an hour,

_'Please don't get into this argument again. Please don't get into this argument again. Please…'_

Six months ago, in the midst of the Silas debacle, Elena had decided that she was sick of choosing between the two Salvatore brothers and offered them an alternative.

Polygamy.

Damon and Stefan had both accepted and the three of them had formed a new relationship where the brothers shared Elena.

The three of them hadn't announced this to the world, or even their friends but eventually the rest of the gang had figured it out.

Jeremy had been bewildered and Elena had sat him down and explained that this was a relationship of her choosing.

Caroline had done her best to reserve judgement, much like Matt, she wanted Elena to be happy and after climbing into bed with Klaus she was hardly in the position to be throwing stones.

Although she was curious about the logistics- how'd they handle jealousy issues? What happened when they went on dates? How did the pda's work?

Still, by far the biggest opponent to the relationship had been Bonnie, she didn't consider this polygamy to be Elena's decision but a selfish move on the  
Salvatore's part, a way for them to handle the fractures in their relationship by turning Elena into a toy they could both share, a removal of her personhood and objectification of the worst degree.

Bonnie and Elena had argued about this a few times already, going around in circles- sometimes literally- in their bedroom while Caroline sat on her bed and tried to mediate.

Occasionally Stefan would try to soothe the situation over but with his guilt complex and easily activated self-loathing, Bonnie's words would send him into a spiral of depression that turned him into a hermit or risked driving him to turn off his humanity and then Elena would be making an emergency call to Damon who'd come roaring up to Whitmore and the three of them would take refuge in a hotel room for a night and emerge the next morning with their devotion to one another reaffirmed.

Caroline hated those nights, because when Bonnie realised where Elena was she got all worked up and then took her frustration out on her for her longstanding plans for winter break and the fact that she and Klaus were in frequent contact.

Nothing too intense or committed, just casual texts to one another, keeping in touch, flirting, comparing wild nights which he typically won through virtue of long experience and wilder imagination.

She'd been the one to text first, it had been the morning after her first college one night stand, she'd been doing the walk-of-shame back to her room, disappointed by the lacklustre sex and impulsively sent a message to Klaus asking how he was enjoying life in New Orleans.

He replied with a photo of Bourbon St looking worse for wear, coloured streamers strewn across the road, smashed bottles and decorations limply hanging on to the walls and lampposts,

_'Festival last night'_ he'd written, _'Lost a drinking competition against a priest'_

She'd laughed at that and with the easy, friendly mood established they had begun their every-other-day, few times a week texts to one another.

So Caroline is hunched over her suitcase, praying that Bonnie's disappointment or wrath won't land on her, Elena is easing her way down Stefan's body, landing on her feet but keeping a firm grip on the collar of his shirt whilst he pretends to be fascinated by the pink streak in his girlfriend's hair.

But their luck is with them tonight because Bonnie just sighs, "Right, well I have somewhere I have to be so I'll see you guys back in Mystic Falls"

She grabs her gym bag and holds her keys in one hand before giving them a brisk wave and backing out the door, the vampires waiting until her footsteps were out of their advanced earshot before letting their shoulders sag in relief and almost instantly feeling guilty about it.

After all, Bonnie was their best friend and she was dating Elena's brother, a small difference of opinion shouldn't get between them.

Still...

* * *

"All packed?" Elena asked loudly, the caffeine clearly hitting her as she bounced over and sat cross-legged on Caroline's bed,

"Got everything? Every little thing? All the knick knacks and….mfff!"

Stefan placed his hand over Elena's mouth and straddled her from behind, "I can ship something to you when we get home tomorrow" he offered and Caroline grinned,

"Thanks…I'm thinking I might need a ball gown but I'm not sure which one to take…the blue, the green or the gold?"

"The green" he announces decisively, "Because you wore the blue one to the last Mikaelson ball and I was planning to borrow the gold one for whatever Founding event they manage to scrape together without you and you should pair it with the pink shoes because I've already tried them on and they don't fit me"

Caroline laughed as Elena rolled her eyes lovingly.

Now that someone new wasn't trying to kill them each week, Stefan had lightened considerably and found a sense of humour that the girls hadn't realised he possessed.

"Right" she grabbed her toiletries bag from the bathroom, "Well…I think that's everything so…"

There was a knock on the door and Elena wrestled out of Stefan's grip so she could go to answer it, pulling it open with a big smile,

"Oh…" she faltered but then recovered, "Hey Jesse!"

Caroline winced, she'd been hoping to get away clean for the semester break and had been avoiding any and all potential love interests for the last week.

Jesse was a third year biology student who'd invited Caroline and Elena to a frat party in their first week, they'd hooked up at a bonfire night and been friends-with-benefits ever since. Unfortunately she'd come back to her dorm a few times to find him waiting, making pleasant conversation with Bonnie and figured out pretty quickly that he was way more interested in her than she was in him.

That wasn't to say that she didn't like him, he was hot and she enjoyed the sex and the maturity of the casual hook-up but it felt weird to commit to something more when she had Klaus waiting in New Orleans.

Not that she thought for one second that he was being abstinent during the semester, hell he was probably having more sex than all the freshmen combined but she wasn't about to set foot in the French Quarter to find him with a girlfriend and she could hardly have a boyfriend and then head off to spend her holiday with another guy.

So she winced but came to the door, "Hey Jesse…I heard they've got jello shots in the common room, want to grab some?"

He grinned and shifted back, allowing Caroline to step into the hallway where she almost immediately tripped over two guys sharing a bottle of vodka. Jesse caught her arm to steady her and she thanked him brightly, pretending not to notice as she moved forward quickly enough to break his hold.

"So" she looked over her shoulder, "Any plans for the break?"

He shrugged, "Nah…just heading home to Jackson…see my folks and family, but you're headed to New Orleans right?"

Caroline tensed and, out of habit, her brain went into panic mode before figuring out that Elena or Bonnie had likely mentioned it to him. But this was the perfect opportunity,

"Yeah, actually I'm meeting a guy there, he lives in the French Quarter and invited me to spend a few weeks with him"

"Oh" Jesse mumbled, "Uh…is he a student here or…?"

"No, we met in back Mystic Falls, he's an artist"

And a King, Dictator, General, Revolutionary and Father but that would require far too much explanation.

"So…are you and he…?"

"We aren't exclusive, we haven't even…" she breaks off because Jesse doesn't need the gory details of her and Klaus' up in air relationship.

"We've been taking things slow"

Which was technically true, they'd had one day of mind-blowing sex and then barely a kiss before he'd headed home and she'd returned her focus to Silas and his desire to destroy the remaining shreds of happiness in Mystic Falls.

"Uh…okay" Jesse scratched the back of his head as they found the common room and Caroline grabbed them two bright red shots,

"So…does this mean I'm completely out of the running or…"

Great. The one time there wasn't loud music blaring in the typically alcohol soaked room and Jesse decided he wanted to define their relationship.

Caroline threw back the shot and ran her tongue along the plastic to pick up any leftovers, she wondered if maybe she couldn't grab another two or twenty before having this conversation but a line was starting to form and Jesse was waiting patiently and she hated when she was left hanging…

Seriously, she needed to get this over and done with so she could get started on her holiday without feeling any guilt.

She led Jesse out to the stairwell which was typically quiet this time of night due to the cold draughts and bad lighting. She leant against the wall beside one of the windows that looked out onto the green.

"Honestly Jesse," she began, crushing the plastic in her hands and letting it reform a shape only to crush and twist it another way,

"I don't exactly know _what's_ going to happen over the break, I may come back single and we can go back to what we had before or try something new or I might come back in a relationship, but you shouldn't wait around for me in either case because it wouldn't be fair"

There.

She'd said it.

Kind of.

Maybe?

Jesse grinned and stepped forward until he was pressed up against her. This was uncharacteristic of him and she blushed, lowering her gaze,

"What if I want to wait around for you Forbes?" he asked in a husky tone, "What if I think you're the kind of girl worth waiting around for?"

She turned her face away but he caught her chin in his fingers and brought her back up to stare into his eyes, he caught her with a hard kiss, wrapping his arms around her so that there was no space left between them. Caroline floundered, enjoying the sensation and used to making out with him but not wanting to lead him on, she pushed him away with her human strength and when that didn't work, added a little vampire strength to the mix,

"I _really_ like you Jesse" she told him as she tried to catch her breath, "But I know that your last girlfriend kept you waiting around for her and it's not fair of me to do that…I'm sorry…I'll uh, call you when we get back"

She moved around him and hurried back up the stairs and straight to her room, closing and locking the door behind her with a sigh of relief.

Elena was now sitting on her own bed, finishing off the last of her energy drink while Caroline's suitcase was now on the carpet and Stefan sitting in the armchair, unwillingly apparently because he was tied up with bras and old t-shirts and gagged with red lace panties that Caroline really hoped were Elena's.

Her friend raised her head, "You okay?"

She nodded, "Yep, all I need is to shower, double-check that I've packed everything and I'll be good to go"

"Well" her friend clambered off the bed and held out her arms, "If I don't see you tomorrow morning…"

Caroline stepped into her embrace and squeezed her tight, "I love you Care bear"

"I love you too Lei-Lei"

"Mhhhfff"

"Shut up Stefan" 

* * *

A/N- So there's the opening chapter, I was trying to go for a happy and carefree Stefan, although that's not exactly canon, read and review my lovelies.


	2. Elena

A/N- I own nothing, but thank-you for all the lovely reviews! They definitely help with my writing direction and style. 

* * *

Damon Salvatore pulled his Camaro into the student visitor parking at nine-thirty am exactly, he was barely out of his car before Elena was jumping into his arms, her strength causing him to stagger backwards and nearly loose his footing. He keeps them upright as she peppers his face with kisses,

"I've missed you so much" she tells him between kisses, "So, so, so, _so_ _much_!"

She had dressed this morning in a new purple wool dress and Caroline's beret which matched perfectly, hoping to appear mature and grown up.

That plan had failed at the very moment she'd squealed her excitement and raced across the concrete.

But Damon's arms tighten around her and he presses his lips against her hair, "I missed you too"

"_I_ missed not having people help me carry these bags," Stefan complained as he lugged two heavy suitcases out of the main entrance to their dorm,

"I've already done this once today"

"_Oh_" Elena, whose guilt was even more easily activated than Stefan's, drops out of Damon's arms,

"Sorry"

She bounds across the parking lot grabs her suitcase as Damon pops the trunk for them.

Over the last sixth months the three of them have developed the ability to anticipate each other's needs and can enact wordlessly, Damon's hand is held out for the suitcase the very second Stefan is within reach.

The two colour co-ordinated suitcases, part of a set that Caroline had insisted everyone buy for college, were placed side by side. At which point Stefan throws Damon into a headlock, the two of them wrestling as Elena plays with her phone, checking messages and barely noticing the scuffle.

By sheer luck, Stefan manages to get his brother immobile long enough to crow,

"My turn!" he attempts to kiss Damon on the cheek but finds himself being disarmed and thrown into the backseat of the Camaro,

"Oh look" Damon grins as he closes the passenger door, "Elena just won shotgun privileges for the holidays"

"Urgh" Stefan stretched out across the backseat, "Come on! Elena's legs are far too small to be riding shotgun"

"Her legs are prettier than yours" Damon counters, tossing his keys in the air once before turning on his heel and nearly running smack bang into the brunette in question who is standing before him with a puzzled look on her face,

"Where's Jeremy?" she asks confused and he blinks,

"Jeremy who?"

"Very funny Damon" she rolls her eyes as he ushers her into the car,

"Seriously though, why isn't he here? Bonnie will be here any minute and…she's not coming back with us is she?"

Damon grimaced as he settled into the driver's seat, he and Stefan had figured out pretty quickly that Bonnie Bennett would rather have her teeth pulled without anaesthetic than be in a confined space with the two brothers who she thought were abusing her best friend.

Unfortunately Elena could never comprehend the idea of anyone staying angry with her, especially when in this case, she hadn't acted with the intention of hurting them.

Damon wants to shield her from the pain of Bonnie's disapproval but unbeknownst to Elena, their secret was out in Mystic Falls, courtesy of Rudy Hopkins and he and Jeremy had been facing the censure of the small town for weeks now, including but not limited to, a visit from a prune faced social services agent who resented feminism, female liberation, considered Elena to be a modern day jezebel and had required exceptional levels of compulsion after she'd forged such fantasies of abuse that, had the papers been filed, Damon would have been facing twenty years in prison.

So Damon is admittedly bitter and that carries over into his speech,

"Did you _really_ think she was going to hop aboard the Salvatore express to Mystic Falls?"

"But…" she turned to look at Stefan who shrugged but stepped up to the task, "Bonnie will come around Elena, if we just give her time"

She huffed and fell back against her seat, "_Where_ is Jeremy, Damon?"

He sighed, "I told the little bastard that if he got an A on his English essay that he could drive up to meet Bonnie…it's not my fault" he added defensively,

"I thought it was a safe bet!"

It wasn't intentional but Elena was immediately distracted, "Jeremy's doing well in English?"

"Yep" Damon struggles to mask the pride in his voice, "Turns out not being murdered and resurrected every week does wonders for your school life, of course, having your X-Box confiscated doesn't hurt either"

Stefan stuck his head into the front of the car, "Why'd you confiscate the X-Box?"

Damon scowled, glaring at the red light they were coming up towards,

"You ever heard of High Stakes?"

Both of the passengers shook their head, "It was released earlier this year, a cartoon simulation where you hunt and kill Dracula and his groupies in Transylvania, after five minutes of watching Jeremy use a vampire as a bludgeon to beat another vampire to death I decided that little emo had way too many distractions in his life. So it went the way of most of my enemies, a watery grave in the Quarry"

Elena and Stefan barely managed to control their giggles, both knowing Jeremy would have bought that game purely to piss Damon off. Stefan settles back in his seat but Elena is giddy.

Jeremy got an A in school.

In her last year her grades were abysmal, she was _lucky_ to get a C in anything and skipped so often some of her teachers had honestly thought she'd dropped out.

But Jeremy was doing well _and _he was comfortable enough at the Salvatore Boarding house to tease Damon and not be afraid of being kicked out. He was treating it as his home.

* * *

Distracted for the rest of the trip, Elena fills Damon in on all the gossip and little details of college life that she had forgotten in their nightly calls to one another.

She and Stefan are exaggerating the sheer level of sexually transmitted infections roaming around the college dorms when Damon finally pulls into the driveway and orders them both to get out of his beautiful disease free car.

Elena laughs and carries her suitcase straight to the laundry to get started on the obscene amount of washing she had to do. Damon waited to make sure she was out of ear shot before leading Stefan to the parlour and pouring them both a double shot of bourbon,

"You know…" he began tersely,

"I could have _sworn_ we had a conversation about Elena backpacking around Europe these holidays…or was it Mexico…I definitely remember that she was supposed to cross a border"

Stefan sighed and took the drink as he fell onto the couch,

"I tried brother…the second you texted me I suggested everything I could but she refused to travel without you and at the moment, you come in a matched set with Jeremy, whom she thinks would benefit from the stability of a year where he _doesn't_ have to move houses or states"

Damon cursed and sculled his drink before pouring himself another one and sitting opposite his brother who watched him with concern,

"You want to tell me why you're suddenly desperate to have Elena and I out of your life?"

He grimaced, "Hopkins dissolved the last Council and tried to form a new one in secret, hoping that I wouldn't find out about it. He's not using Founding Family but victims of supernatural attacks, all raring to grab pitchforks and light bonfires and…Liz heard a rumour that he's building up a vervein stash, _god_ alone knows from where because I sure as hell am not distributing and I doubt Klaus allows anyone to run supplies out of Louisiana but Liz reckons he's stockpiling for a showdown"

Stefan paled, "And he knows the identity of every vampire in town"

Damon raised his eyebrows, "Which isn't too hard considering the pact Katherine drew up for us last year in which Klaus and Elijah drew a big red X across the map telling all supernatural creatures to steer clear"

Stefan frowns, "Alright…not the best situation to drop Elena into"

"And I'd really prefer Jeremy not be around vampire-hating trigger happy freaks," Damon adds, keeping his voice low as he hears Elena hum while pressing the buttons on the washer,

"His hunter side like to rear its ugly head _way_ too often"

"Hey," Stefan brightened, getting to his feet and taking both their glasses, "You know where we haven't been in a while?"

"The fuck outta Virginia?"

"No" Stefan spreads his arms out,

"The Gilbert lake house, we'll send Elena up today to get it ready, close up here, wait for Jeremy and follow her tomorrow"

Damon nodded, "Okay, you, me, Elena and little Gilbert out of town is good, what about Barbie and Donovan?"

Stefan shrugged, "Matt's human, they won't go after him and Caroline should be…" he checked his watch,

"If she's keeping to schedule she'll be somewhere along the North Carolina border by now, gunning it to New Orleans and to the heart of Klaus Capital. We'll just text her and ask her to let us know if she plans on coming back to town"

The elder Salvatore groans and runs his hands through his hair, "Okay, so that just leaves us to plan a vacation-evacuation with the hope that we don't let the murderous mayor figure out that we're on to his dastardly scheme"

He claps Stefan on the shoulder as he leaves the room, "Welcome home little brother"

Stefan sighed and rolled his shoulders.

Danger.

Intrigue.

Mayhem.

Still, he'd rather be here with his brother and Elena than anywhere else on earth.

* * *

"Okay!" Elena loaded the last shopping bag into the car, "I think that's everything we need…you and Stefan will be bringing up the alcohol right?"

Damon smirked, "Come on beautiful, when have you ever known me to travel without the bar?! Especially if I'm going to be dealing with Gilbert shenanigans all weekend"

She gasped in mock offense and he gasps in response, she whacks him on the arm, "You know what, you are more than welcome to stay here…alone, while Stefan, Jeremy, Matt and I have loads of fun without you"

Damon blinked frowning, feigning casualness, "Matt? Quarterback's coming?"

Elena smiled flirtatiously, leaning against the car and draping her arms around his neck, "Yes, I rang Matt today and he's got a five day holiday from the Grill to come up and hang out with us, well hang out with my family, you are _not_ invited"

Damon reached down and gripped her hips, bringing her close to him and doing the eye-trick he knew drove her crazy,

"Not invited huh? Well, maybe I'll just sneak in at night, when you're sound asleep in your red lace teddy and wake you up with a kiss, and a touch, and a…"

He picked her up and squeezed her ass, making her squeal and laugh, "Damon…no"

But she pulled him down for a passionate kiss, twisting her hands in his shirt, "I've missed you babe" she murmurs, "I've missed…_us_"

Us.

She'd missed the three of them being together, being whole.

She also missed the times when it was just her and Damon, she'd had a semester of nights and lazy afternoons in bed with Stefan and only a handful of moments with the elder brother.

She loved them both desperately but she was terrified that the inequality of her time shared between them would cause jealousy or troubles.

The last thing she would ever want is to hurt either brother ever again.

"Come up to the lake house with me" she begged with an adorable pout that he matched,

"Sorry baby, I have some stuff to deal with here but I'll drag everyone down tomorrow, I promise"

She moans but steals another kiss, "I'm going to be so lonely"

"One night baby" he slaps her ass and opens the door for her, "But wear my favourite teddy tomorrow night and I'll make it up to you I promise"

Elena beamed and kicked over the ignition, beeping the horn as she pulled out onto the street, she took the route out of town that led across the Wickery Bridge, her hands tightening on the wheel as she became hyper-aware for those torturous two minutes.

Then, it was open road and bright afternoon sunlight as she turned on the radio and wondered if, miles and miles away, Caroline was driving at that very second, thinking about her as well.

She wondered if Caroline knew what it was that had their family so worked up and worried.

Elena wasn't an idiot.

She was gullible, she liked to believe the best of people and that made her naïve, she wasn't as manipulative as Katherine or as smart as Damon but she was intuitive.

She knew when her men were terrified and trying to trick her into heading to safe grounds.

That was why she had invited Matt along as well, she'd seen the relief in Damon's eyes when she'd dropped that piece of information. Matt coming to the lake house meant Jeremy was definitely going to be there and hopefully Bonnie would come along as well.

Best that everyone they loved could be safe until they'd figured out the danger.

She wasn't too worried however, it had been so long since Silas that she'd been waiting breathlessly for a new threat to come along and now that it had, she was almost relieved, they'd fight it off as a family and carry on with their lives as they always had.

She caught a song she liked on the radio and began to sing along, noting with annoyance the buzzing in her car she couldn't quite figure out, making a mental note to ask Damon about it later.

She would have been much more concerned about the situation if she'd realised that it was a military grade tracking device.

* * *

A/N- So a couple more set up chapters but I promise the next Caroline chapter will be Klaroline smut.


	3. Katherine

A/N- So I know that many of you (possibly all) were hoping that this would be the chapter where Caroline and Klaus have sex on a couch in the Bourbon St mansion. Unfortunately I'm still building up the story.

* * *

New Orleans was beautiful in the early evening, when the sun had just finished setting and twilight lit the world in a soft glow.

Especially when you were sitting in the rooftop garden of a multi-million dollar mansion in a lounge chair that cost more than some people made in a year.

Still, Katerina Petrova was feeling wistful as she looked out over the neighbourhood with a barely touched sketchpad in her lap and a pencil resting in her fingers.

Both of which she had stolen from the Original Hybrid so when she hears the ever so familiar roar from downstairs she's not at all surprised.

"Katherine!"

She rolls her eyes and spends a heartfelt thanks to the long dead architect who so designed the enormous house that vampires couldn't rely on the pattern of one's airflow to locate them.

When Niklaus Mikaelson hollers bloody murder you typically either rushed to his side or ran like hell, but Katerina is feeling lazy so she settles for setting one gorgeously heeled shoe on the ground and considers the act of standing,

A few floors below her, the shouting continues,

"Elijah, where the _bloody hell_ is your concubine?"

Elijah Mikaelson doesn't shout, he doesn't holler or bellow but he can still raise his voice to make himself heard when he chooses,

"I haven't the slightest clue brother because as far as I'm aware I do not have a concubine"

Katerina smirks, she herself wouldn't choose this exact moment to debate relationship terminology but she does not have one thousand years' experience bickering with the temperamental King of New Orleans,

"Life-partner, girlfriend, master, whore- _whatever_ it is she's tricked you into calling her these days, where is she?"

The gentle wind rustles through her curls and the slight chill on her bare arms in the rapidly cooling night motivates her to get to her feet and saunter through the glass doors that led to the large apartment she and Elijah shared.

She hit the lights as she went, lighting up the kitchenette, sitting area and bedroom in a warm glow, she knew the brothers would hear the electricity and lazily contemplates whether or not to start running a bath while waiting for them to reach her.

Best not, she doesn't want to flood the ensuite again.

"Fiancée?" Elijah suggests with a prickly tone.

They're getting closer and Katerina hurries the last few steps, opening the bedroom door and stepping out onto the gallery as the two brothers appear on the second floor landing.

Two men whose similarities lay in their postures, their movements and behaved like twins with only one shared parent and no shared physical features between them.

"Hello handsome" Katerina calls down the stairs, knowing it will amuse Elijah and irritate Niklaus. "Looking for pain or pleasure?"

For all his angelic features Klaus can resemble a demon when he flashes up and stops a bare inch from her, fortunately she was a vampire herself for five hundred years and her safety has been assured for the last six months so she feels very little surprise or fear when he holds the penknife up between them.

"What's this I hear about a festival tomorrow night?" he demands and she widens her eyes innocently,

"Which one? The S&amp;M extravaganza or the Bestiality circus fundraiser?"

"Katerina" Elijah chides, stopping on the last step, bracing himself on the railing, the landing is far too small an area to be making threats and enraging immortal creatures but Klaus is forbidden to cross the threshold of her sanctuary so they'll have to make do.

"Oh…you must mean the three day Food and Fashion festival that starts this weekend" she snaps her fingers, "You're _welcome_"

She slips past him and his brother, clattering down the stairs in her six inch heels, "Is dinner ready?"

Rendering Klaus speechless was almost as much fun as sex.

_Almost_.

"Welcome?!" he splutters, pushing his brother to the side,

"I did not give permission for this to take place! I found out through Kieran and the damn council of Machiavelli wannabes"

She smirked, if there was one thing Klaus disliked more than her messing with him it was the human faction in the city who had introduced themselves to the Original family by listing their demands for bribes and power, telling Klaus that he was allowed to live in the Quarter only on their forbearance.

The Mayor alone had survived the massacre and since then Father Kieran had been the main representative of the faction, having come from a family of hunters and understanding the power that the Originals held.

Unfortunately the new council the Mayor had built were either boot lickers or back stabbers, thankfully beneath their notice but Katerina wondered if Elijah might send her in to play with these pesky little humans before another 'boating accident' tragically wiped out the top brass again.

"I could have _sworn_ I left you a post-it note somewhere" Katerina pouted as she led the men through the hallway into the ground floor kitchen, she stared at the large fridge which held one finger painting, presumably placed there after Klaus had seen an ad or half a lesson on parenting.

"Nope…hmmm, did I send you a _text_?"

Klaus is gripping the penknife so tightly she wonders if he might crush it into fine dust.

Her gaze flickers to Elijah, he's leaning his shoulder against the doorjamb, his hands in his pockets, keeping an eye on the situation but unworried.

If he does not fear for her continued existence on this plane than she won't.

"Explain to me why exactly you are throwing festivals in my Quarter" Klaus demands through ground teeth and Katerina rolls her eyes, hoisting herself up onto a marble counter,

"Klaus, do you know how many times Caroline has been to NOLA? Zero. When she arrives…tomorrow I presume, this festival will highlight two of her favourite things, good food and great fashion. It will provide entertainment and give her something to focus on other than the fact that she just drove two days for a two week booty call"

The penknife lands in the cupboard a full meter away from her, a warning shot more than anything but enough for Elijah to come stand between them and raise an eyebrow at his younger brother,

"Thank-you Katherine for your thoughtfulness" he prompts Niklaus, slipping easily into the paternal role he has played dutifully for centuries, he receives a scowl in response.

Katerina and Klaus' relationship was not one of pleases and thank-you, rather it was one where communication was limited as much as possible, with messages typically relayed through Elijah.

A pointed finger raised in warning and then the younger Original was out the door, either in search of a meal, a neck to snap or a bar to deprive of top shelf liquor.

If he weren't so homicidal when he was nervous, his excitement at Caroline's impending arrival would almost be adorable.

* * *

Katerina says as much to Elijah who scoops her off the bench and carries her into the dining room where a pristine set of silver trays awaits, he sits her on the table,

"Tarator" he explains, lifting the lid of the silver bowl so she can see the cold, white soup.

"You mentioned that you've been feeling nostalgic"

That had been a throwaway comment when Elijah had wanted to know why she kept walking down to the river, she smiles at his obvious desire to please her.

"Are you hungry?" he asks, but the smell of the soup is making her nauseous so she wraps her leg around his thigh and draws him closer, cupping his face in her hands she quirks an eyebrow,

"Are you?"

He grins eagerly and lowers his head to feed from her neck, his tongue darting out and his lips kissing his favourite vein before his fangs sank in.

Katerina edged closer and his hands settled on her thighs, squeezing and rubbing them through her skinny jeans, she slipped her own hands under his jacket and gripped his shirt, enjoying the sensation of being fed from whilst wondering if dinner was going to be further delayed for sex.

"Well this is disgusting…you know some people use tables for eating food, not their debauchery"

Katerina jumped at the surprise and shouted when Elijah's fangs tore her vein, he broke away and she grabbed the pocket square from his jacket, holding it to her neck and swallowing as the blood stained the white silk.

She glared at her fiancé as the wound slowly closed up, he sighed and drew the ruined silk away to ensure that the bleeding had stopped before greeting his sister,

"Little sister" he opened his arms, "Welcome to your new home"

Rebekah Mikaelson looks around with distaste, "It'll do, though it will have to be redecorated"

"Actually" Katerina hopped off the table, "We just finished redecorating and furbishing and purchasing all the cutlery and linen and what-have-you but feel free to put your personal touches on your own room"

The blonde drops her purse on the table, essentially ignoring the doppelganger, looking to her eldest brother,

"She isn't going to be living with us on a permanent basis is she?"

Elijah smiles and drops his head, readjusting Damon's watch before addressing his sister,

"I'm rather afraid she is, you see, Katerina and I are to be wed"

Katerina smirks and tries to hide her wince as Rebekah's shriek of outrage threatens to break every piece of glass within a five mile radius.

"_Have you completely lost your mind?!_"

"Isn't it wonderful!" she gushes with feigned enthusiasm, "You and I are going to be _sisters_ Becky!"

Elijah presses his hand to her lower back, "Darling, perhaps you and I should eat upstairs tonight?"

Katerina places her left hand on her chest, angling her ring finger so that the red diamond caught the light and hit Rebekah's eyes,

"But I was going to ask your sister to be a bridesmaid"

"_Go!_"

She chuckles and saunters past as Rebekah sneers at her, "You marry my brother over my dead body!"

Katerina laughs lightly, "Of course, would you like your corpse to be laid out on the aisle or seated in the front row?"

"Katerina!" Elijah chides and she throws her hands up, "I'm going Elijah, geez can't a girl wreak some havoc in peace around here?"

However, she obediently climbs the staircase as her lover tries to reason with his sister,

"Rebekah for the sake of our family, could you maybe quash your personal opinions for one moment and think of my happiness"

"I am" his sister screeched, stomping forward "You can't marry that devious trollop, she won't make you happy"

Katerina smirked, this last half year Elijah had frequently stated was one of the happiest times of his life.

* * *

She doesn't go to their apartment however, but to the second floor parlour beside the ballroom, curling up in the black velvet armchair she stared out the window at the wide expanse of grass and imagined running across the garden.

Running free.

When she had been running for her life, for five hundred years, in her own way she had been free.

She wasn't now.

Klaus Mikaelson had granted her a stay of execution for her having killed Marcel Gerard when he had been planning to murder Hayley and his unborn son but Elijah had served her terms of imprisonment.

_"You will stay here in New Orleans with me Katerina…you shall serve Klaus and I loyally…you will not leave this city without my spoken permission…you will never run away from me ever again"_

It had taken three months but Katerina had finally been able to force self-awareness upon her mind, to realise the compulsion Elijah had placed upon her during their first night together.

At the time he didn't trust her.

Now…he claimed to love her more than the sun on his face and to need her more than his daylight ring yet the compulsion remained.

Which is why she had planned the upcoming festivities.

The brothers were always distracted playing the role of benevolent dictators during these Quarter wide celebrations, meeting with the other factions, ensuring that peace would be maintained whilst presenting the image of a secure kingdom and hierarchy through their carefree enjoyment of the festival.

Katerina had hoped that she could use the opportunity to disappear into the crowd and make herself available to be approached.

Later if Elijah noticed her disappearance she could lie and say that she was partying or that she was gathering information.

After all, Katerina Petrova was one of the best information traders in the supernatural world.

She'd learnt long ago that when you lacked strength- knowledge was power. The more knowledge you had, the better deals you could make, the better partners you could ally yourself with.

She had a great deal of knowledge.

However. There was limits to what even she could understand.

For example, why her long lost daughter had supposedly tracked her down after five hundred years and trying to contact her now that she lived in New Orleans.

She had made initial contact through a middleman, a low level information trader that had supposedly been vainglorious enough to take the job, to approach Katerina without realising that he had been chosen purely because he was of so little import nobody would care if she snapped his neck and threw him in the Mississippi.

Now, Katerina was waiting for her daughter to announce her presence, to make herself known and completely upend her- if not peaceful at least _easy_\- life in New Orleans.

What was worse was the calm before the storm, the inevitable wait between the acts.

Katerina waited day after day for the next sign from her child but none came, so she showed herself around town, flung herself desperately into life in the hope of making herself available to be reached for news.

And still she waited.

* * *

Elijah found her a mere ten minutes later after Rebekah had stormed out of the house, slamming the front door so loudly Katerina wondered whether they might need to have it repaired.

She took pride in this house, when she and Elijah had chosen it she'd allowed her imagination to run wild, picturing a future for the two of them, a life where instead of fighting daily for her survival she could debate where to have lunch with Elijah or whether or not to invite people to the Bourbon St manor or to the mansion _Le Coeur Jardin. _

The room has grown dark in the oncoming night but neither of them reaches for the light.

Neither of them struggles to see in the darkness, either literal or metaphorical.

Finally, Katerina decides to speak,

"So" she keeps her eyes fixed on the window, "Is Rebekah demanding my head on a silver platter or my heart to be cooked and eaten?"

Her fiancé clicks his tongue, "You may survive yet, as it stands she is currently only requesting that I present to her indisputable evidence that my brain has not atrophied or ceased to function entirely"

She rolls her eyes and hears him settle in the matching armchair opposite her,

"She will come around, she is simply bewildered and she has never had to share Niklaus or I with another female before, she has always been the little darling"

The little darling of the Mikaelson family.

That was the equivalent of being the sweetest person in the leper colony, outsiders were still going to bend over backwards to avoid you.

Especially when you had a reputation for betraying or abandoning your family every time a lover suggested it.

Elijah played with his cufflinks, ones she had bought him, "My darling, I know that the two of you aren't predisposed to care for one another, but for my sake, could you please try? After all, the cure debacle aside, the two of you have never encountered one another or had any reason to dislike each other"

That was true.

It was also the unfortunate reminder of the many reasons that Katherine and the Original family should still be enemies or conspiring to destroy everything the other held dear.

But to look back would destroy her, so Katherine rolls over so that she's sitting on the chair properly, facing him and smiles,

"For you my lord and love, I might even invite her to the wedding"

He makes a face at that, their wedding is something that is currently only a vague idea in the back of their minds, an event with a date set for 'someday'

After all, they are both immortal, one a vampire, one a champion skinny dipper in a Fountain of Youth, why rush when they have all the time in the world?

He crosses the room to take her left hand in his, stroking it with his thumb and kissing the inside of her wrist, his eyes are burning as his lips brush her skin, the brown orbs bring to mind coal glowing in a fire.

"Will you dance with me in the ballroom?" he whispers entreatingly, applying the gentlest pressure to bring her to her feet.

Katerina laughs and stares at him incredulously, "I don't think Rebekah coming home to find me naked on top of you is going to do wonders for her and my friendship"

He opens his mouth faltering and the realisation hits her,

"Oh, you mean _dance_-dance, I thought we were speaking in euphemisms"

He smirks and begins walking backwards, towards the large double doors that open into the grand ballroom,

"When have you ever allowed me to use such subtlety? You barely tolerate euphemisms in public, let alone the privacy of our home"

She shrugs innocently as he turns on the lights, a warm glow filling the cavernous room, bouncing off the cream and gold filigree walls and polished oak floor,

"We're grown adults, we're obviously together, why hide anything?"

A twinge of guilt courses through her but Elijah is busy with his phone, finding a classical composition to play.

He leaves the device on a stand and leads her to the centre of the floor bowing when the music filters clearly throughout the room.

Katerina curtsies, despite her skinny jeans and in moments is in his arms, spinning around the room, pretending in her mind's eye that they are at the Hofburg Palace, surrounded by Austrian nobility, in ornately decorated silk outfits, tipsy on champagne and blue blood.

They aren't afraid of family, they aren't cautious about the past and blindly optimistic about the future.

All there is the Viennese sky full of stars, the palace full of beauty and wit, and each other to love passionately as they have always done.

But something primal calls to Katerina, forces her to accept the empty ballroom in New Orleans and the pirated music on repeat as her reality.

Because New Orleans is where her daughter is waiting to meet her.

* * *

A/N- Katherine is my favourite TVD character so I hope I captured her properly.


	4. Bonnie

A/N- I have an essay due tomorrow so now is the perfect time to finish a chapter early and post it up!

* * *

The giant mug was placed in front of her on a china plate with a teapot beside it,

"Enjoy" Ash told her brightly, "But be careful, it's steaming!"

Bonnie smiled her thanks and waited until she was alone again before taking the lid off the pot and sticking her fingers into the boiling water.

Nothing.

She could feel the agony of the burn and the water scalding her skin but she might as well have plunged her fingers into the icy water of the Arctic for all the heat she could feel.

Nothing.

She withdraws her fingers and dries them on a napkin before pushing the small coffee table away with her foot and sinking back on the leather armchair.

Ever since she came back from the Other Side she hasn't been able to feel warm.

Standing in a shower, in front of a roaring fire, or lying on her back with Jeremy thrusting inside her, she couldn't feel even the slightest bit of heat.

All she could register was the pain from the burn, not the burn itself.

Her craving for herbal tea is gone along with any hope she had for the day.

And there wasn't much hope to begin with.

She doesn't even know why she bothered considering that she woke up this morning to a goodbye text from Caroline on her phone,

'_Hey! Setting off now will call you when I get there. Have a great holiday ;)' _

Setting off.

To New Orleans.

Where Niklaus Mikaelson the Original Hybrid was probably lying on a bed of silk sheets wearing little more than a smile on his despicable face.

_Asshole_.

And Caroline was going to sleep with him like a slut.

Not that anyone was calling her on it. Even her own mother had barely tried to stop her from going to the French Quarter, though Liz had been absolutely horrified when Bonnie had told her how her daughter planned to spend her winter holidays, she'd allowed herself to be talked into submission.

What kind of _mother_ was she?!

Caroline would be furious if she knew that Bonnie had been the one to reveal her plans to visit Klaus to the Sheriff but what sort of friend would she be if she had let her run off into the hybrid's arms without a fight?

She'd be Elena Gilbert probably.

Bonnie loves her best friends like sisters but goes wild with anger when they fail to realise just how stupid they are being.

One of them is running right into the arms of the most dangerous supernatural creature on the planet, trusting that he won't hurt her or refuse to let her leave New Orleans when their two week vacation is up.

And there is nothing in the world to stop Klaus from keeping Caroline there. From imprisoning her in a dungeon, in chains as his slave.

Despite this, despite Bonnie having pointed this out to Stefan numerous times, nobody had done a damn thing to stop her. Of course, that was because both Salvatore brothers were busy these days.

Both of them were sleeping with Elena Gilbert.

_Both_ of them.

Both brothers.

Sometimes at the same time!

Bonnie had been stunned all those months back when she'd discovered that after years of highlighting the differences between herself and Katherine Pierce, Elena had pulled the ultimate 'Katherine' move and entered a three way relationship with Damon and Stefan.

It was disgusting, how the hell did they… _how_ did it work…?

Bonnie knew the three of them wouldn't last, there was no way the two brothers who'd fought for the better part of two hundred years and could barely share a house would be able to share the woman they both loved. And when Elena finally chose one of them the fallout would be catastrophic, blood, broken bones and her best friend sobbing on her shoulder completely unable to comprehend why her love life had to be so hard.

It was strange how she had endured so much seemingly without becoming an adult.

Bonnie on the other hand.

She had been born an old soul and her suffering had matured her, giving her a tragic air that drew in fellow empathic peoples.

It was why Celeste had watched her for only a few weeks before approaching her to beg for her aide.

And of _course_ she'd sought her out.

After all, Bonnie was a Bennett. She was one of the most powerful witches in the world, she was a valuable ally.

She was special and Celeste's attention was a salve when her friends and family were busy ignoring her trauma in favour of 'living their normal lives'

* * *

The bell above the café door jingled and Bonnie raised her head as Jesse strode in, slow and confident as a senior student who knows his way around campus and knows his place all too well. He was gorgeous and intelligent and if Bonnie didn't have an epic romance with Jeremy she would have been tempted. But Jesse had taken one look at Caroline and it'd been clear where his interests lay.

She tilts her chin and makes eye contact, he nods and heads over, reaching down for a friendly hug before pulling up a chair,

"So…" he clasps his hands, "Caroline headed off this morning?"

"Yep" Bonnie poured him her tea, "Around dawn I'm guessing, sorry about that"

He shook his head with a rueful grin, "It's fine, I figured she wasn't going to ever drop her plans solely for my sake, especially when it would have meant her coming to Jackson or me headed to Mystic Falls and meeting the parents"

He speaks lightly but there's a wistfulness in his tone that makes her understand that even if he wasn't betting on that happening, a part of him had hoped that it would.

Bonnie sighed, taking in the hot guy in front of her. He was _perfect_ for Caroline, he was funny, kind, friendly to everyone, sociable, intelligent, considerate and a romantic. Every straight girl on campus who knew Jesse was single had spent the semester actively trying to change his status and he was interested in the one girl too _stupid_ to know a catch when it landed in her lap.

This was the guy you dated, the one you brought home to meet your family on holidays, the one you had cute study sessions with in the library and introduced to your friends.

Klaus was the guy you ran from in fear or avoided like the plague.

Caroline couldn't bring him home for the holidays, he had a kingdom to despotically rule in New Orleans and her mother would shoot him if he walked into her house. He had a kid so he wasn't about to re-enrol in college and what the hell would he study anyway?

Politics 101 or Intro to Criminal Law?

No point introducing Klaus to her friends, they all had an acquaintance with the man who had terrorised them mercilessly to get what he wanted.

She smiles as Ash brings her a fresh cup for the tea and sits on the arm of Jesse's chair, chatting with him for a good five minutes, utterly enchanted with everything he has to say. She lived on the same floor as him and was either deeply infatuated or completely in love with him.

Soon she's called back to work and Jesse edges closer to Bonnie, lowering his voice even though there's no-one around to understand what they're discussing,

"So" he clears his throat, "What did Celeste have to say?"

* * *

Twelve hours earlier 

_Jeremy had fallen asleep quickly after they'd had sex, dozing off with his arm flung over her chest, she'd counted backwards from one thousand before climbing out of the bed, thankful when he didn't stir. _

_Dressing quickly in yoga pants and his sweatshirt, she stuck her feet in ugg boots before venturing out into the freezing night. The cheap no frills motel was in a quiet residential area which suited her greatly, nobody would be around to witness anything. _

_Still, she hurried down to the ground floor and slipped behind the side of the building, waiting impatiently until her mother came out of the shadows with another woman, Bonnie waited for them to approach and shivered when she felt the power radiating from the stranger.  
_

_"Are you Celeste?" she asked and the woman nodded, "Yes and you're the brave girl whose going to help the New Orleans witches"  
_

_Bonnie swore that she detected sarcasm in her tone, she felt defensive, "I'm saving my friend from Klaus, the witches can sort out their own problems"  
_

_Celeste bristled, "We need each other Bonnie Bennett, it's the only way we'll be able to destroy Klaus and the Originals once and for all"  
_

_"My daughter is more than willing to help" Abby assured Celeste, giving her daughter a pointed look that she'd seen mothers give their children when they were running around the Grill.  
_

_But why should it in any way quell Bonnie? Abigail Bennett had walked out on her when she was a year old, she'd re-entered her life only to shout orders at her ineffectually and sit on the sidelines bemoaning her vampirism as her daughter was lost to Expression.  
_

_This was followed by the several months in which she barely responded to the emails Bonnie dictated to Jeremy as the woman failed to realise that her own daughter had died.  
_

_No, Abby did not get to discipline her.  
_

_She eyes Celeste, from her boots to her pleather jacket, "What's in this for you?"  
_

_She receives a grin that brings to mind a dog bearing its teeth, "Freedom for the witches of New Orleans"  
_

_"No" Bonnie has been standing up to supernatural creatures for years now, this one doesn't frighten her, "If that was it there'd be eleven other people in this conversation, I don't work with people unless I know what the hell they're fighting for, what's in this for you?"  
_

_Celeste juts out a hip and glares "You're bold for a girl without magic"  
_

_Bonnie crosses her arms, "Go ahead and kill me, you can either answer to the Ripper of Monterrey and his psychotic older brother, a Five hunter or Klaus Mikaelson courtesy of Caroline Forbes. Make no mistake, I will end this deal right now and walk away without a damn"  
_

_"Fine" she rolls her eyes, "I have a vendetta against Katherine Pierce, happy?"  
_

_"No" Bonnie scoffed, "Everyone in the supernatural world has a vendetta against Katherine Pierce, she can't sleep at night unless she's committed three atrocities or ruined six lives. What makes your hatred of her so damn special?"  
_

_"If you must know, the bitch killed me" _

* * *

Bonnie related this to Jesse in a low voice, pleased by his interested expression,

"Okay, so she wants revenge on one person" he mulls the information over, "Does that matter though? As long as the both of you have the same goal, as long as the vampires are taken out, does it matter what happens to the Katherine person?"

She considered this as they were brought another round of tea and offered lunch menus,

"I'm worried she'll leave Katherine alive" she admits, "Even if she's no longer with the Originals…actually, especially if she's out on her own, she's going to be dangerous as hell and wanting payback. If she gets to Mystic Falls, if she turns Caroline or Elena against me, she'll have the entire group on her side"

Jesse shakes his head, "Caroline would never turn against you she loves you and Elena like her own sisters"

Bonnie sighed, "Yeah but once I would have been positive that Caroline would never be stupid enough to sleep with Klaus and that Elena would never sleep with two guys at the same time, _brothers_. I can't trust my friends not to be stupid about this"

He nods, "Okay, logically, from a scientific point of view, if they're going to negatively affect the outcome, you remove them from the process…I'm not saying kill them" he hastily adds, putting up his hands defensively, "But, I don't know, put a sleeping spell on them or something?"

She considers this idea and promises him that she'll think it over before throwing down some notes on the table and hugging him goodbye. She steps out into the blinding sunshine and figures that the dorm room will be empty by now, she can enjoy some privacy before Jeremy gets back from meeting his father's old lab partner.

* * *

Ashley threw off her apron the moment Bonnie Bennett was out of sight, grabbing her cigarettes from her pocket she announced that she was going on break before marching out the back door of the café, to a tiny area facing the road, hiding behind the large dumpsters and lighting up eagerly.

She'd had to go to great lengths to hide her nicotine addiction along with her natural accent and dammit every time she'd pasted a fake smile this semester she'd fucking wanted to claw someone's face off.

In a few moments Jessie slides into the space beside her, yanking the cigarette from her lips and pushing her against the wall as he kisses her passionately. She grinds her body against his and is raring to go when they break for air, "Christ it's been too long" she complains as he takes a drag before handing the cigarette back to her,

"You're one to complain," he snaps, gladly dropping back into his British accent,

"I haven't been able to so much as look at an ad for smoking lest I disgust the uppity Bennett bitch and last I checked you're not the one who's been the fuck toy of a vampire for the last two months, Jesus you wouldn't believe the fucking things I've had to do or the pills I've had to swallow to keep her interested. She's like a slutty energiser bunny, we go all night and she still sticks her fingers up her cunny for the finishing act. Fuck I've missed you babe"

He reaches for her hand and unbuttons his jeans, shoving her inside,

"Well?" she prompts as she squeezes him, "What's the plan?"

"They haven't fucking got one yet" he grouses, "Six fucking months and the only thing they've got is a boner for destroying about the mighty Mikaelson family. Why the hell the council sent us to watch this bullshit is beyond me, best case scenario they maybe overthrow a powerbase- that's a big fucking maybe  
considering what I read in the dossier on this Klaus bugger, worst case scenario- they fail and a few witches die, Nature gets thrown out of whack for…what? A generation or two max! God…" he trailed off as he came and leaned against the wall with a sigh,

"Still, we could have phoned this one in"

Ash wiped her hand and finished her cigarette, "Yeah, problem is though, these fucktwits might be brainless gits but they're also some of the most powerful or rarest supernatural creatures. If they wipe each other off the map the council is going to be pissed as hell"

"Right" he concedes with a sigh, "Gotcha, I'm gonna go deal with Maxfield before he recruits the younger Gilbert to his slicing and dicing…you good to handle Abigail Bennett"

Ash smirks, "It'll be my fucking pleasure"

* * *

A/N- I blame the last part on caffeine.


	5. Caroline II

A/N- Wow, VD Season 6 promo came out today. I get Stefan telling Elena to move on but come on, she lost the guy she loved, give her a year to bounce back completely.  
Also, some of you might be disappointed by this chapter, if so I apologise.  
Rated M!

* * *

It took her two days to reach New Orleans.

It was a fourteen hour drive from Whitmore through the South along Route 85 but Caroline had turned down Klaus' offer to buy her a first class plane ticket.

She'd felt more comfortable getting there on her own funds and been excited by the opportunity to explore her own country, stopping off for breaks in major cities and seeing some of the sights before moving on.

Caught up in a moment of romanticism she'd decided to throw her motel reservation to the wind and spend the first night sleeping in a green paddock under the starry blanket of the black velvet sky.

She wouldn't make that mistake again soon.

The natural world was incredibly loud. The creatures moving through the paddock, the bugs crawling on the grass, the night birds who stopped singing just in time for the day birds to take over.

And the light.

Sunrise is beautiful but not when you've had a sleepless night fighting the onslaught of ants.

The second night- after a quick round of compulsion on the adulterous couple next door to her- she slept wonderfully until midnight but she woke up restless with the urge to be back on the road.

She was so close to her destination now and the anticipation was driving her crazy.

It was strange but she could almost _feel_ Klaus waiting for her.

But when she checked her phone she saw nothing after the text he'd sent her around ten pm.

_'Goodnight sweetheart, see you soon'  
_

Romantic yet simple. Obviously he wasn't trying to pressure her but now that she allowed herself to think about it…

Maybe it wasn't romantic, maybe it was absent-minded? Klaus wasn't one for subtlety, when he wanted something he was vocal about it and when he wasn't one to wait.

God, what if he was sick of waiting for her?

_He's your first love. I intend to be your last, however long it takes.  
_

But they'd already had sex, what if he didn't want her anymore?

Not that the sex hadn't been amazing, really amazing…but what if the sex hadn't been so great for him?

She was only nineteen, she didn't have the same level of experience or range as him.

Although he had really seemed to enjoy it, especially when she'd gone down on him after their shower together.

No, Klaus wasn't one for politeness, if he didn't want her in New Orleans he would have told her not to come.

But what if six months was too long an absence? Maybe he moved on?

What if they didn't have any chemistry anymore?

She is in her car, pulling out of the motel on the edges of Monroeville and waiting impatiently for the GPS to load on her phone.

She arrives in New Orleans shortly before six am, having chased the sunrise right into the French Quarter, she finds parking near Esplanade Ave and wanders down Decatur St until she comes across Café Du Monde just as it's beginning to open and takes an outside seat.

Waiting patiently for the waiter to come out she orders the famous café au lait and beignet in such a bubbly manner that the poor guy is stuttering and falling over himself to try and flirt with her.

He's desperately asking her basic questions about her college experience and Mystic Falls when her voice trails off and her gaze focuses on something behind him.

The waiter turns to see a blonde, blue eyed guy with a light tan striding down the road, he hops onto the sidewalk and sweeps into the café, he's beaming and Caroline is so radiant the waiter pretty quickly figures he's stepping on toes and excuses himself just as Klaus reaches the table.

"Hello sweetheart" he grins as she gets to her feet, reaching a hand out to steady the chair after she nearly knocks it over in her eagerness.

"Hi" she breathes before she's in his embrace, her head on his shoulder with his arms tight around her.

It feels good, it feels right, they linger as their hands feel the bodies underneath them, assuring themselves that they are here, on that beautiful summer morning with the scent of the Mississippi in the air as the sun slowly lit up the world and the cool breeze danced across their skin.

He kisses her cheek when he pulls back but his eyes are so bright with happiness that Caroline impulsively stretches up and steals a kiss, her lips quickly brushing against his and breaking away again before he can react with anything more than pleasant surprise,

"You got my text?" she asked as he pushed her chair out for her and repositioned his own so that he's sitting next to her rather than with a table between them,

"I did" he confirmed, "And you're lucky I enjoy painting at the golden hour, otherwise you might have been abandoned, wandering the city on your lonesome"

She snickers, "Right, like you wouldn't have known thirty seconds after I parked my car anyways"

"Forty love, there was a party last night, all my flying monkeys are still sleeping it off"

They're giggling when her food is brought out and he gives the waiter his order before stealing a beignet, she squeals in feigned outrage and pushes the plate out of his reach,

"Did you enjoy your roadtrip?" he asks, trying to distract her while she tries to figure out how to snatch her pastry back from him.

"I did, I had lots of fun visiting all those towns" she tells him, sipping her coffee as her eyes flicker briefly to the street where signs of life are beginning to show but her gaze goes straight back to him, like a moth to the flame, unable to bare not drinking in the sight of him, he seems to be having the same trouble, not even noticing the waitress who puts his coffee on the table.

"And how many souvenirs do you need to ship back home to have breathing room in your car?" he teases knowingly,

"I…" she tries to defend herself before breaking into self-depreciative laughter, "Okay, admittedly two…maybe four boxes"

"_Caroline_" he draws out her name and she kicks his chair, "Shut up…okay five, but I have a lot of people to buy for!"

He laughs and there's powdered sugar on his lips so really she can't be held responsible for grabbing a fistful of his shirt and stealing another kiss.

However he's better prepared this time, he cups her cheek in his hand and draws her back when she breaks away,

"There's…a…fed…ex…up…on…Royal…St" he tells her between kisses, "I checked the opening times last night"

She smiles, of course he did.

She gives him a final kiss and nips at his bottom lip seductively before pulling away and feigning innocence as she nibbles on their breakfast.

He's clearly hot and bothered but grins and pushes his chair closer into the table, "Tell me how college life is treating you sweetheart"

She sips her coffee, "Good, it's been so much fun pretending to be normal but some of the students on campus…it's like they're not even trying you know. Seriously, I went to a charity dance where they had balloons as the only decoration and a couple of pizzas as food, I mean I could throw a better party in my…_oh_"

He'd rested a hand on her knee when she'd begun talking and it had been steadily climbing her thigh until it slipped under her dress, she gasps as his fingers start tracing the outline of her panties,

"Something wrong love?" he asks innocently as his middle finger slips under the elastic and rubs against her skin,

"Klaus!" she squeals, kicking him in the shin as his index finger joins in,

"We're in public!" she protests,

"No-one is watching" he assures her, looking about the reasonably empty street. Even such an attractive couple as they aren't going to garner much attention this early in the morning.

"Someone might see!" she points out but he shakes his head,

"You know I would never let them do that"

"I've missed you" he murmurs against her ear as his fingers run along her folds,

"Hmmm" she swallows and whimpers as he pinches her clit.

"Keep talking Caroline" he tells her, "Tell me every good thing you've experienced since we last kissed"

"I…" she squirms closer to his fingers as they slip close to her entrance, "I've told you"

"You texted me and I enjoyed those messages but I want to hear your voice, the way you light up with happiness, the lilt in your tone when you recall fond memories" his breath is hot on her neck and her eyes flutter closed before she forces them open and turns her face to his.

"Arriving at college was one of the best experiences of my life" she murmurs as her arousal makes her warm and wet, "I felt like such a grown up and everyone was so happy, there was such an excited air on campus, like everyone really wanted to be there"

His fingers penetrated her and she moaned, "Keep talking Caroline" he encouraged as he delved into her, "Tell me more"

"Uh huh…um" she blinked, "Moving in was so much fun, Elena, Bonnie and I have a large dorm to ourselves in the coolest building, there are so many exchange students on our floor and our R.A lets us get away with so much because he has a thing for Elena, even though she told him the first day that she has a boyfriend"

"_Boyfriend_?" Klaus clarified, noting the singular,

Caroline nodded, "Yeah, she uh…didn't want to be known as the polygamy girl and Damon stayed home to raise Jeremy so…anyway it is so much fun to unpack and decorate, there was music blasting and people kept coming by to say hi, which was difficult because the mini-fridge you gave me was top of the line and people kept wanting to take a look which meant Stefan had to hide all our blood in his room. But that night we had floor parties to meet everyone and it was so much fun, around two in the morning the power went out…Elena, Stefan and I could see fine of course but no one wanted the party to end so we just sat around in the common rooms talking in the dark. We were in bed by four and up by eight for our classes, the three of us have our own bathroom which is the greatest thing ever and since Elena's cut her hair she doesn't take an hour and a half to get ready anymore. My first day of classes I got lost twice and ended up in the wrong classroom once but a lot of students had the same problem, it's so confusing you know. Thankfully the first week is admin stuff, how to use the subject portals, what assignments we have…_Klaus_…_oh my god_"

He leaned over and kissed her, swallowing her squeal as she enjoyed her orgasm, pulling the napkin off the table and wiping his fingers clean.

"You're as resplendent as ever sweetheart" he whispers as she recovers, fixing her summer dress and throwing him a playful glare,

"And you have no patience" she accuses but he chuckles,

"Au contraire love, if I had as little patience as you suspected we would be coupling on this table right now",

Caroline clears her throat and reaches down for her handbag, "Then maybe we should…?"

He catches her meaning and his eyes go dark with lust, "Right now?"

She nods and he throws some notes down on the table before taking her hand and leading her quickly up the street.

* * *

Seeing his table has gone the waiter runs out in the hope of stopping them, fearing a dine and dash only to spot the greenbacks under the coffee cup.

One hundred dollars' worth of them.

His eyebrows shoot up as he heads to the register to sort out the bill.

The whole leave the money on the table cliché was a movie and tv trope that was really irritating for the service industry, especially if the money was stolen by other customers.

However, he supposed that when you were young and as gorgeous as that couple had been you could probably get away with murder.

Caroline gasped as Klaus sped her into a courtyard and pushed her up against a wall, they kissed hungrily as their hands roamed over each other's bodies.

He reached down and yanked his belt free of the loops and she grinned with anticipation, kissing him again as he guided her through the wide doors to a study, walking her backwards until she felt the back of her knees hit something and sat down on a couch.

She leant back against the cushions, throwing her dress off and ridding herself of her bra and panties before turning so that she was lying down and after Klaus rid himself of his shirt she pulled him down on top of her.

"_Wait_" she hummed as he nibbled and sucked her neck, "Ummm...no-one is going to walk in on us right?"

Klaus shook his head, as much as he was able to while his lips were moving down from her neck to her chest, "House is empty. Son, siblings' et al at mansion"

She sighed in relief and ran her fingers through his hair, stroking his golden curls as he lavished kisses on her breasts.

When she was panting and rolling her hips in want he got to his knees and unbuttoned his jeans, freeing his sizeable erection, however the denim barely got past his ass before she wrapped her legs around his back and drew him towards her.

They kissed once more before he slid in with a smooth thrust and she orgasmed.

"Oh…god…_Klaus_!"

He chuckled and kissed her cheek, "Sweetheart, I'm flattered but you really don't have to…_bloody hell_"

Her muscles had clenched around his cock and his eyes went wide as he propped himself up on his elbows to stare at her,

"Seriously!" he exclaims in disbelief, stealing her catchphrase,

"You actually had an orgasm!"

Caroline smirks, "Duh! Wait…you thought I was _faking_?"

He gapes, "How?"

She props herself up, ignoring his hard length still inside her, he was staying as still as possible to avoid losing his erection as her body continued to tremble around him,

"What do you mean _how_? It's an orgasm Klaus"

"On first penetration love, I'm good but I'm not that good"

She shrugs, "Well, I've had an entire semester full of mediocre, I guess my body just got excited by actual skill"

The aftershock has her moaning and he winces, slowly pulling out of her before she locks her legs tighter around him, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Tactical retreat" he deadpans, "I don't escape now it's going to be the shortest surrender in the history of…Caroline, if you don't release me now I'm going to release in less than two seconds"

She rolls her eyes, using her hand and legs to pull him back in, "Klaus, I'm equal opportunity and this is a fabric couch, do you know how hard they are to clean? Besides you've got a thousand years' experience, surely you can hold on for another minute…oh _God_!"

She'd climaxed again, from their tilted position when he'd re-entered her and he finishes seconds after her, resting his forehead on hers with a growl,

"You've ruined me" he accuses gently, kissing her, "Utterly ruined me my love, one thousand years developing this magnificent skill and stamina and even when I was human I lasted longer than this"

Caroline giggles at the absurdity of the situation. She was lying on a couch in a mansion in Bourbon St, early in the morning, wrapped in the arms of the Immortal Hybrid who'd she'd managed to bring to pieces in less than thirty seconds.

"_Aw_…poor baby" she teases, rubbing his shoulders, "Want me to fetch you some Viagra from a drug store?"

With another growl he picks her up, her legs wrapped around his waist and his hands on her bottom,

"Where are you taking me?" she squealed as he carried her through the house, up a flight of stairs,

"Bedroom" he tells her simply, "And I'm not releasing you until I've assured myself that you aren't a threat to my sexual stamina"

She throws her head back and laughs, looking so beautiful that he can't resist kissing her neck before kicking the door firmly shut.

* * *

Three hours later Caroline is clinging to the headboard for dear life as Klaus takes her from behind, another in the endless supply of orgasms tears through her and she cries out as he continues the demanding pace,

"Say it" he orders her, nipping at her sweaty shoulder blade as he pulls out all the way to slam back inside,

"I can do this all day sweetheart, you'll wear out before I do"

She sobs and rides the orgasm out, trying to figure if she can stand another one,

"_Fine_" she relents, "Klaus you are the greatest lover in the world and I love having sex with you…happy?"

His hands are on her waist, stroking her gently even as he loves her mercilessly, "Yes…now, say that American football is greatly overrated and European football is better"

She turns her head to stare at him in disbelief, "_What?!_ Why?"

"Because American football is greatly overrated, why play a sport if you're going to have that much body armour on?"

"Oh for fucks sake" Caroline can feel another orgasm coming on and honestly, her body is beginning to ache from the sheer level of enjoyment she's experienced as her lover spent the morning proving his stamina in an endless regimen of intercourse,

"Klaus, just finish already!"

He gives her a devilishly evil grin before his hands snake up to her breasts and pinch her nipples,

"Now what are these? Oh look they seem calibrated to your…"

With a loud curse Caroline loses her grip on the headboard and falls against the mattress as Klaus continues pounding,

"Fine," she surrenders, "American football is greatly overrated and European football is better"

"Yes it is" he agrees with false amiability before three quick thrusts and he explodes inside her with long spurts, he drops on top of her, careful not to hurt her before sliding beside her, cuddling her so that her back is against his chest, their legs intertwined.

He kisses her neck and wraps his arms around her, she grins and plays with his fingers before the door opens and an intruder barges in the room. She shrieks and with vampire speed pulls the blankets up from the floor where they had fallen while Klaus glares at the uninvited guest,

"Elijah"

The eldest Original has a polite smile on his face and absolutely no trace of the mirth he is feeling as Caroline ensures that she and his brother are modestly covered,

"Hello Niklaus, Caroline dear it is a pleasure to see you again"

She would offer him her hand but he wouldn't like where she'd had it over the last few hours,

"Brother, one of these days you'll have to learn the concept of privacy"

Elijah smiles, "Perhaps you and I could take a class together Niklaus, after all, it is not something you yourself excel at, besides there was no sock on the door. According to Katerina, in modern American culture that means that I am free to enter"

Klaus throws an arm out expressively, "There is clothing strewn all throughout the bloody house!"

"But no sock on the door" Elijah counters as Caroline busies herself tying her hair up,

"Do you have a sock handy?" she asks her lover quietly but he doesn't answer,

"Big brother, now that we have established that Caroline and I are in search of privacy…"

"Actually dear little brother, I have come to ensure that Caroline is aware of her options regarding accommodation for the next two weeks"

Caroline flushed and tucked her hair behind her ears nervously, "I thought I'd be staying with you guys" she said, "But I can totally stay in a hotel"

Klaus shook his head, "Nonsense we have plenty of room…"

"We have several rooms here" Elijah interrupted, "An entire house on Conti St and I am more than happy to book you a suite at a hotel"

"At the Garden District" Klaus finished grumpily, his brother nodding sagely, "That we do brother, guest bedrooms, all the way at the other end of the house…completely opposite…"

Klaus growled and Caroline jumped at the noise but can immediately tell that this isn't a forewarning of his werewolf side coming out to kill, it's a growl of frustration,

"Big brother, please leave before I indulge in the overwhelming urge to _kill_ you and your loved ones"

Elijah snickered, "You are my loved one"

"Then leave before I kill myself"

The eldest Original retreated to the door before turning back, "Oh and Caroline? There's a Food and Fashion festival tonight, I'll have Katerina come fetch you at sev-"

His speech is cut short by Klaus hurling a book with lightning speed and great force at the bedroom door which cracked under the impact. He flops back onto the bed, exhaling loudly as he visibly resists the urge to chase after his brother and beat him senseless.

Caroline is biting her cheek to stop herself from giggling. Once she realised that she wasn't in fact the cause of the argument-that Elijah had intruded for the sole purpose of outraging his brother she had sat back and watched the display with amusement.

And maybe it's the fact that she's exhausted and emotional from so many orgasms or tired from the long drive, but the bickering between the two brothers had been so laced with familial love and understanding that she hadn't thought Klaus would ever find.

The man in question is currently caressing her thigh with her fingers, she looks down at him with a tender smile which he readily matches.

"Welcome to New Orleans love"

* * *

A/N- My productivity is directly related to reviews- just saying...


	6. Rebekah

A/N- Holy crap so this is a long chapter. Sorry guys, I just started writing and here we are, I'm moving the story forward a little bit and setting up some of the tensions. Also there might be some slight deviations between the previous stories and this one, if there are I will let you know.

The dresses that Katherine and Caroline wear this chapter are in the links below,

www. stylebistro lookbook/Clothes/CNtmEh6t1Ks/Nina+Dobrev

www. shopyourtv 2014/04/vampire-diaries-season-4-promo-carolines-lace-peplum-dress/

* * *

Home.

It wasn't a concept Rebekah had enjoyed personally for many centuries.

Every time she and her brother's had settled down anywhere, Mikael would inevitably turn up and chase them off.

They had never really had time to set down roots or contemplate the future before arriving in the 'New World' and building their lives in New Orleans.

They had been devastated when they'd had to leave.

No, when they'd had to _flee_.

When she and Nik had stolen an automobile and driven madly into the night, the burning city behind them with their beloved Marcellus believed dead along with their hopes and dreams.

She could never forgive Mikael for that.

For destroying what little happiness she had known over the centuries.

What was the phrase? Right,

_'You can never go home again'_

Whomever said that had been correct, that statement in particular was never truer than for an immortal, for every time they went home it had inexorably altered beyond recognition.

That was why she had been so hesitant to come back to New Orleans.

After all, Mystic Falls had been almost like a different world entirely when she'd finally returned there.

It had also been an unmitigated disaster, so why on earth would she return to New Orleans?!

However, while she had been travelling Europe with Matthew Donovan and then imprisoned by Silas in the Quarry a la Stefan Salvatore, Niklaus and Elijah had been steadily building a life for themselves in their old city and when she had failed to return as punctually as they would have liked they went and continued building it without her.

They threw events without inviting her.

They marked special occasions without her.

They purchased properties where her bedroom was a last consideration.

They formed alliances that functioned without her.

They seized power and distributed the spoils without a single reward being thrown her way.

They killed…

_Marcel_.

Oh how she had _loved_ him. And now, there wasn't even an empty grave to mourn him.

Because Katherine Pierce had killed him and been rewarded for it when she should have been punished with her long overdue execution.

* * *

Rebekah growled as she entered the ground floor parlour to find yet another bouquet of Bulgarian roses sitting on the side table in a crystal vase.

The whole bloody house was full of the damn flowers, their scent permeating every room save the nursery because apparently her nephew had an appetite for expensive imports.

The damn things gave her a headache.

Not so much the pink petals or the heady smell so much as what they bloody represented.

Katherine Pierce and her damn assimilation into the Original household.

Into Rebekah's damn family.

She could hear her now, clattering around in the apartment she and Elijah kept and called 'their sanctuary', her heels clicking against the marble of the bathroom floor as she got ready for the evening festivities.

The festival that was being thrown in honour of _Caroline's_ arrival.

Rebekah came home to New Orleans to find one brother fornicating on the dining table and another on the phone with the municipal offices, she had to carry her own bags and see to her own needs but bloody Caroline Forbes got a damn parade!

* * *

She throws herself down on the couch to seethe but doesn't even get a full minute alone with her thoughts before her brothers came through the front door, bringing what sounded like half of the French Quarter with them.

An older man steps into the parlour and spots her, coming over with his hand held out.

Usually that would surprise her, not many people would approach an Original in such an open manner, especially when they would have to know who they were. But in this case what surprised her was the collar on his shirt.

The man was a priest.

"Hello" he greeted in a warm, friendly tone, "Father Kieran, St Anne's Church,"

She shook his hand limply, "Rebekah Mikaelson"

"Oh, hey!"

They both looked up as a blonde woman entered the room, "Nik and Elijah have told us so much about you"

Rebekah was given another handshake and could see faint familial resemblance between the two visitors,

"Camille O'Connell, Cami, Nik invited us over for pre-drinks"

Rebekah blinked but followed them into the backyard where a wet bar had been set up, along with several lounge chairs and tables.

A few dozen people milled around, chatting amiably as drinks were handed out and cigars lit.

"The most powerful people in the Quarter" a voice whispered in her ear, she saw her eldest brother appear at her side wearing his usual suit and sipping on a scotch,

"We were going to host them on Bourbon St but it's being used as a nightclub for the vampires tonight, we figured why not bring them here, show off our wealth and status"

It made sense and Rebekah is temporarily distracted from her bad mood,

"Alright" she admits grudgingly, "Tell me who's who then"

He linked his arm through hers and walks her out among the crowd, smiling amiably as people greeted them, he led her to the edge of the swimming pool and handed her his scotch,

"The priest is Father Kieran. Leader of the human faction- a good man, we attend his services every Sunday at St Anne's, the heart of the French Quarter community. The blonde woman by his side is Camille, she's a student at Tulane completing her PHD in Psychology, she bartends at Rousseau's and is friends with Niklaus, she is the one who found us Erik's babysitter. She had a twin brother Sean, unfortunately he was hexed into murderous insanity by one of the now dead witches and as such, the human and witch factions here are now enemies, which benefits us greatly"

He turns an infinitesimal amount, blocking her view of the priest and directs her attention to the underdressed brunette standing almost on top of the bar and throwing back shots like she was an immortal creature,

"Sophie-Anne" she can hear the distaste in her brother's tone,

"One of the witches who dared to blackmail Klaus using Hayley and Erik's life for leverage, we were going to kill her during the purge but she managed to escape and then somehow slinked back into New Orleans, she's the current head of the faction, sliding into the role by default because there isn't a soul left with the power or willingness to take on the position. However Katerina does believe that another is likely standing behind the curtain pulling the strings"

Rebekah doesn't want to hear about the opinions of Katherine bloody Pierce, she glances at the tall dark-haired man in a nice button down shirt who tries to step back into the house just as Nik blocks his path and ushers him back onto the patio, "Failed intruder?"

"Jackson Parsons, werewolves" Elijah led her to the bar for another drink, lowering his voice so that only she could hear him,

"It turns out Hayley did have family in New Orleans, unfortunately they were trapped in wolf form until quite recently…now they are constantly demanding face time with Erik, they believe that with hybrid blood he will be a powerful alpha for them. Of course after the issue with Tyler Lockwood, nobody sees Erik without our dear brother's express permission"

"So nobody is seeing him then?" Rebekah guesses correctly and he shrugs, "You can forgive Niklaus for being overprotective when you consider that the dear child was kidnapped and harmed"

He waves a hand at the people gathered around, "The rest are inconsequential, hangers on or second-in-command…or…"

Rebekah turns to him with interest as he trails off, puts down his glass and strides purposefully into the house with her following him out of curiosity. He leads her to the foot of the main staircase where a woman in a business suit has just begun her ascent, when he clears his throat she flinches and turns around,

"Hello Elijah"

"Francesca Correa" Elijah greeted the suited woman with a tone that could stop an avalanche in its tracks, "Forgive me, I did not realise you had been invited this evening"

"She wasn't"

Katherine Pierce is standing at the top of the stairs, one hand resting lightly on the rail as she descends in a gorgeous black mini dress with a beaded collar and low cut lace over her chest that accentuated her breasts.

The bitch always did dress to seduce.

She pushes a stray curl behind her shoulder as she continues talking "She has _never_ been invited to this house and _never_ will be, leave now before I get blood on my shoes"

Everyone glances at her off-white silk heels and then their gazes trail up her long bare legs, just as she intended.

Francesca Correa gives a thin lipped grimace, "Of course" she grits out between clenched teeth.

However, Rebekah notes that as eager as her brother and his paramour are to have this intruder leave, neither budge an inch when she turns to leave, effectively trapping her on the staircase. With implacable expressions, they watch as she has to squeeze under Elijah's arm to reach the ground floor and then hurry from the house with her wounded dignity.

Standing in the hallway, Rebekah opens her mouth to inquire about the woman only to catch a movement in her peripheral vision.

Katherine Pierce is poised one step up from Elijah, her head tilted and looking down at him with sickening adoration that is out of place on the sociopathic bitches face,

"My protector?" she murmurs with a raised eyebrow, earning a quick half-shrug from Elijah,

"My darling" he responds as if the two words are an answer, which Rebekah supposes they must be because Katherine gives him a kiss that lingers past the point of appropriate and slides past him in what can only be described as clothed foreplay.

A kiss full of the promise of later.

Rebekah couldn't recall the last time she had been kissed like that.

Wait, yes she could.

_Marcel_.

* * *

"Hi!"

Rebekah is violently pulled from her nostalgic recollections by the irritating high pitched voice belonging to Caroline Forbes. She patters down the stairs with her black pumps in hand, wearing a gold and black lace dress.

Basic minds think alike obviously.

"I'm not late am I?" she checks worriedly, apparently forgetting that the two of them had never even come close to approaching the point of small talk,

"Elijah said seven but it sounds like everything's kicking off early"

She smelt like floral body wash but her eyes still bore the shine of the endorphin rush, she was deliciously flushed, her hair hanging naturally around her shoulders.

Rebekah had seen her brother in his button down and formal jeans- the only pair without bloodstains- as he'd entered the house but if she was a betting woman she would wager that he'd gone straight from bedding Caroline to round up the guests currently drinking in the backyard, unaware that their king was a debauched fiend.

"Don't look at me," Rebekah sniped, "I don't even know _what_ we're doing tonight"

"Food and Fashion festival in the Quarter" Nik announces from the front door, having walked through the garden, "And the car is here, so shall we?"

With one more irritating smile at Rebekah, Caroline slipped on her heels and hurried down the hall to take the hand proffered to her, they disappeared out of sight as the guests began to tramp through the house or the garden, chatting away happily, shouting their immediate plans to one another over their shoulders or calling friends and acquaintances to announce their impending arrival.

Caught up in the wave, Rebekah stepped onto the veranda to see several cars lining the street, convertibles, vintage automobiles, jeeps and a limousine parked in the very front.

Not enough for transportation for dozens of people but enough for the most important to ride in style.

Elijah is standing beside the black stretch, his hands on the hips of his slattern as she whispers in his ear, almost too quick for anyone to see he squeezes her rump and then guides her into the car before looking around and spotting her,

"Come along little sister" he calls, "We don't want to be late"

With a sigh, she flashes down the front path and stops beside the car, "Ready"

He grins and holds the door open for her so that she can slide in and finds herself in the side seat next to Katherine.

The doppelganger gives her a 'once-over' before turning her attention to Nik and Caroline's conversation.

Rebekah can admit that Forbes does look good with her older brother, both of them blonde haired, blue eyed and tanned, their eyes glued to each other as Caroline asked question after question about every aspect of the French Quarter and only reluctantly pulled her gaze away from its King when Elijah or Katherine offered an opinion or answer.

They were barely in the car half an hour as the cavalcade made its way from the Garden District to Bourbon St, sliding to a stop just outside the Hard Rock Café, gaining the attention of curious onlookers. All traffic had been blocked out of the main streets of the Quarter for the weekend, only a privileged few had obviously been exempt.

However, despite the parking available to them, the crowds made it impossible for the cars to go any further.

Not that anyone seemed to mind particularly.

When the driver opens the door for them, Klaus jumps out and offers his arm to Caroline who blushes as she slides into the open air, Elijah does the same for Katherine but at least has the decency to remember his sister.

Rebekah takes in the scene around her, the guests from the party all leaving their cars to stand together, still chatting animatedly but apparently with more self-awareness than before.

After all, they were being watched.

The crowds that prevented them from driving into the very heart of the Quarter were now watching as they lingered on the road, obviously all connected, giving off the air of belonging to an exclusive group that didn't advertise or even encourage membership.

The crowds were a mixture of citizens and tourists, well dressed and casual, all excited and curious.

Especially when the police escort for the Mayor approached and they all fell after him, Mayor Moyne leading the way with a determined gait, a politician's smile stretched across his features and his lined hand poised and ready to start waving at the voters.

Security had cleared a small walking area along the road with black posts and velvet rope so that the most important people in the city wouldn't all be vulnerable amongst the crowd at one time. However it only left room for two to walk abreast.

And somehow, by some rules of precedence Rebekah had yet to figure out, the procession automatically sorted itself.

Niklaus and Caroline were first after the Mayor, their arms linked and Elijah and Katherine a step behind, Rebekah awkwardly followed alone as Father Kieran walked with an unpretentious Camille, the werewolves behind them and the witches trailing in their wake.

The procession was led down Bourbon St, moving slowly as they reached the festival area where several stands had been set up and the press of the crowds against the barriers hindered the movement of the escort.

The Mayor continued to be jovial but in spite of the obvious recognition on the faces of the citizens and the realisation on those of the tourists, he was not the centre of attention.

Nobody is going to be watching a sixty year old wrinkled man in a nondescript suit when there were five amazingly beautiful well-dressed people standing right behind him with wondrous smiles on their faces and laughter in their voices as they formed a merry party.

Cell phones were held up high to take photos and Rebekah shook her hair back as she pretended not to notice, the flashing of the press cameras was harder to ignore but she understood why it was that Klaus and the leaders of New Orleans had chosen to arrive together in such a fashion.

It was a chance to be seen.

The admiration of the crowd, the curiosity of the onlookers, the envy as they watched the elite pass them by and wanted to be one of the lucky ones.

The attention partially soothed Rebekah's wounded ego.

Her smile is even partially natural when they reach the centre of Bourbon St where a large stage had been set up, the crowd was thicker here and the barriers even tighter, so Nik pulls one of them aside and they all filter into the sweating crowd of bodies. Rebekah following her family as they take front row of the audience. The Mayor is being clapped and cheered on now as he climbs onto the platform and approaches the microphone,

"_Thank-you!_" he announces, "Thank-you everyone and welcome to our first annual _New Orleans Food and Fashion festival!_"

The entire street has been decorated with banners and ribbons, stalls line the pathways in front of the shops, restaurants and bars which are all doing a roaring trade. Galleries have been converted for the fashion shows and Rebekah can see the models and starlets watching the speech from the balconies.

The Mayor holds up his hands to silence the cheering, "Now, before we begin. I want to remind everyone to stay safe but I'd also like to extend my gratitude to the two people who organised this event. My personal friends Niklaus Mikaelson and Katherine Pierce"

_Personal friends?!_

The Mayor gestured down to the two people in question, Klaus nodded graciously although Rebekah could see the affronted look in his eyes.

Katherine merely gave her catlike smile and waved a hand back to the mayor that showed off her grace and her ridiculous engagement ring at the same time.

Rebekah wondered if she had ever performed an unpractised movement in her life.

"Now" the Mayor laughed, "I had hoped the sun would set a little sooner tonight but to kick off this event and to show my gratitude…_Enjoy the fireworks!_"

The loud bang of the brocade fireworks sounded right over their heads and every werewolf and vampire on the street momentarily panicked at the unexpected noise, wincing and putting themselves on guard as their sensitive ear drums shattered from the noise and deafened them, leaving them partially vulnerable until their healing factors kicked in.

Klaus is looking murderous when he raises his head, his eyes glaring gold on black but the Mayor doesn't seem to notice, he's too busy posing for the reporters on the stage, laughing amiably and Elijah is suddenly at his arm.

"I do not think he meant it as an attack brother" he tells him as the Original Hybrid bares his teeth, ready to maim at will despite being in a ridiculously overpopulated area.

"It was an accident!" Cami appeared breathless and nearly ran into Rebekah, "Kieran just found out about it from a staffer about thirty seconds ago, nobody realised that it would be so…"

Another bang, strobe fireworks this time and the creatures wince but react less violently to the noise as their senses start to adjust.

Caroline takes Klaus' hand,

"_Chill_" she tells him, "They're just decorative. It's not a festival without fireworks"

He blinks and his eyes are blue again. "Of course love, who doesn't enjoy fireworks?"

Merriment is restored and Camille darts back off, probably to assure her uncle that he wouldn't be needing to perform the Last Rites en masse tonight.

Meanwhile her brothers are entertaining their dates while she stands there awkwardly.

She watches the two couples enviously, Rebekah hated being the fifth wheel.

Standing in the street glancing sideways to the two couples. Niklaus and Caroline with linked arms, taking a selfie. Katherine nestled in Elijah's embrace watching the fireworks.

All of them apparently oblivious to the surreptitious stares of the onlookers in the know.

They were all so picturesquely happy and it stung Rebekah in her lonely heart.

"I'm going to get food!" she announces sullenly, pushing past them and weaving her way through the crowd, "Bye Bekah" Katherine chirps at her back.

* * *

She settles for eating pierogi and a pasty white man with dreadlocks and a Bob Marley t-shirt.

She walks amongst the happy crowd and takes in the food stands representing every restaurant in the city that could afford a stand for the festival.

She compels herself a front row seat to a fashion festival and afterwards compelled herself several new outfits to be delivered to the mansion in the Garden District.

She is in a bar deciding to have her first hurricane when she senses someone at her shoulder,

"I'd have thought you'd have had enough of my family for one night" she muses as she turns to take in Francesca Correa with two thugs at her side.

The older woman rolls her eyes, "Not at all, I've had enough of _Katherine Pierce_ to last a lifetime but unfortunately she doesn't seem to be going anywhere"

Now there's an attempt at camaraderie if ever she's heard one.

"Hmmm" Rebekah sips her bright red cocktail and contemplates her choices.

Oh, what the hell. She didn't have anything else to do tonight.

"It's bloody crowded in here" she complains as she reaches down and breaks the hand of a man trying to take an up-skirt photo of her, he falls to the ground with a shriek of pain.

"Let's go somewhere private" Francesca offers, clicking her fingers at the bartender who nods as she sweeps down into the staff hall and leads Rebekah up a flight of stairs to a private lounge.

It's nothing much to look at, a few armchairs and a poker table but Rebekah is halfway to being impressed.

"Do you own the bar?" she inquires as she's offered a tray of food, Francesca shakes her head and accepts a wedge of cheese,

"No but most of the managers on the street are willing to allow a certain, small group of people access to their private areas at any time…for a small fee of course" she smiles depreciatingly,

"I know your brother was given the option when he first arrived in town but, well, he prefers to perform for an audience"

No need to clarify _which_ brother she's referring to.

Rebekah only shrugs, "That's Nik, through and through, he figures the more public the display of power the better, it discourages opposition"

Francesca makes a sound of agreement as she sips on her own drink, "And the reason I wanted to speak to you tonight, I figured our little tete-a-tete could be a chance to catch you up on what's happening in the Quarter"

Rebekah _knows_ she should bristle at the implication that she isn't in the know, that she should be offended that this human is presuming to tell her what is happening in her own brother's kingdom.

But perhaps she has something to gain from feigning friendship with this woman.

To begin with, she doesn't tell Rebekah anything that she couldn't have guessed.

Niklaus is King of New Orleans.

He issued commands and laws, holding power over every supernatural creature in the city.

Elijah was his right-hand man, he oversaw the alliances between the factions, handled the issues that arose weekly and kept everything running smoothly.

And then she gets to Katherine Pierce.

Even she had a position in this new order.

Famous for being one of the best information traders in the supernatural world she kept Elijah abridge with any and all gossip regarding the Quarter, who was sleeping with who, which factions were on the verge of all-out warfare, which were discontented with Klaus' leadership.

Those who were looking for an introduction to the Original men went knocking on the doors of Petrova's favourite haunts first, seeking her favour.

They went to that Bulgarian peasant.

Not to _her_, Rebekah was ignored, unknown, as the slut that had wreaked havoc on Niklaus' and Elijah's love for one another was pandered to and showered with attention.

And now, enter stage right Caroline Forbes.

A nineteen year old beauty queen who could potentially become an actual queen and push Rebekah even further into the shadows.

Francesca was eager to know all about Caroline, after all, every woman and a great deal of men had thrown themselves at the Original Hybrid but no-one had ever seen him catch someone until now.

"Oh, don't worry" Rebekah waves her hand dismissively, showing a nonchalance she didn't actually feel,

"She's a socialite from Virginia here for college break, she'll be gone in two weeks…sooner if Nik gets bored in the bedroom"

Francesca laughs humourlessly, "Thank God, we had enough trouble surviving the first regime change, I was hoping we'd have at least another year to recuperate before having a queen thrown into the mix, bad enough we have_ Katherine Pierce_ sticking her nose into everything"

"Yes" Rebekah slammed her empty glass down on the table with more gusto than she had meant to, was this her sixth hurricane or seventh?

"She is an interfering, life wrecking bitch, ask any of her ex-boyfriends or her last fiancé, my brother Nik"

Francesca laughed again before an alarm went off on her phone, she pulled it from her pocket with a sigh,

"Uh, I have to go handle the latest shipment my people have coming in at the docks…but this has been mutually beneficial hasn't it, we should get lunch sometime"

Rebekah murmured in agreement and rose to her feet, swaying slightly before her healing kicked in and she sobered up, "Definitely" she announces as her parting words, sweeping from the room and down the rickety staircase.

* * *

If she'd thought Bourbon St had been crowded before it was beyond chaotic now.

She had to use her vampire strength to push her way through the crowds, she couldn't find anyone in the press of flesh, could barely determine whether the people that were knocking her every which way were human or supernatural.

She fought her way to the Manor, where an exceedingly long line of people from both worlds were waiting impatiently to get in.

Even if they didn't know who the Originals were, everyone knew that the most important people in the city partied here and they wanted the chance to mingle with the powerful.

Rebekah didn't even contemplate setting foot in that line, she marched right up to the archway and would have gone straight through to the courtyard if she hadn't been stopped by a beefcake with more beauty than brains, "Sorry honey" he held up a hand, "Unless you're on the guest list you aren't walking through"

She spluttered with disbelief, "Do you honestly have no bloody idea _who I am_?"

He rolled his eyes, "Look, nothing personal okay, but just because you're a vampire doesn't mean you get a…"

"I'm Rebekah Mikaelson" she stomped her foot, "A bloody Original, now get out of my way before I repaint the archway with your blood"

He paled and stepped aside as she stormed through into the large area where multi-coloured lights shone down on the dance floor filled to the brim while rented red leather sofas gave the exhausted party goers places to sit and two wet bars at either end of the courtyard kept them drunk.

Security was posted at every entrance but at least these fools knew who she was, she leapt up onto the balcony and stared down over the scene of hedonistic pleasure, bitterness overcoming her as she stood apart from it all.

Here she was all bloody alone, _again_.

The party was at its bloody zenith and she could see the familiar blonde head of Caroline Forbes, Captain of the Cheerleading Squad, Miss Mystic Falls, beloved by all.

She was in the middle of the dance floor, wrapped up in Klaus as they ground and swayed together, catching the attention of those around them with their sheer chemistry.

Elijah was in a dark corner, pressed up against Katerina, who had her arms wrapped tight around him as they sought to figure out how long they could go without breathing.

There's a heavy step on the balcony as a man reaches the top stair, he's her height, blonde and heavily muscled with an easy grin,

"Girl as pretty as you shouldn't be on her lonesome" he greets her flirtatiously and she rolls her eyes before he offers her a cocktail,

"Same colour as your pretty eyes" he brags, "Had the bar mix it up myself…careful though" he tells her as she goes to take an experimental sip,

"Had to mix blue absinthe and green curacao to get it just right, I'm worried I might have created the one thing capable of killing an Original"

She giggles and drinks anyway, the taste isn't brilliant but his attempt wins her over,

"So you know who I am then?" she teases, handing the drink to him for a taste, he grimaces and hands it back,

"Of course, saw you earlier, gorgeous blonde supernatural woman, you better believe half the guys in town were trying to get any detail they could on you before you even reached the stage"

He leans closer under the pretence of pointing out a man standing in the crowd glaring up at them,

"See that guy? He's from another wolf pack, he's been trying to figure out a way to get in with you for days…he's going to be furious that I beat him to the punch"

She smiles, flattered and allows him to shift closer and snake his arm around her, "Well, if you know so much about me, perhaps I should know your name?"

He grins and offers her his hand, "Oliver"

She finds herself matching his smile and it isn't long after that she's leading him to her old bedroom where he picks her up, wraps her legs around his waist, pushes her against the wall and kisses her madly while he pushes her panties out of the way.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to rise as Rebekah walked Oliver across the courtyard and kissed him goodbye, he left with a grin, still buttoning up his shirt. She yawned and tugged on her dress, pulling the hemline down as she re-entered the house.

She heard a familiar giggle and followed the sound to the study where she first saw her eldest brother's bare foot, it was dangling off the end of the couch that usually decorated the upstairs parlour, he had an arm tucked under his head as he lay across the leather seats wearing an undershirt and his suit pants with a blanket thrown haphazardly over his body and Katherine Pierce curled up atop him. His jacket and shirt were draped over the desk with Katherine's heels, he looked utterly relaxed

"Morning little sister" he murmurs cheerfully.

The sentiment is echoed by Nik who is lying on the other couch with Caroline Forbes stretched out beside him, the two of them snuggling under a doona, both of them facing the coffee table between the two couches where a board game was surrounded by several empty liquor bottles,

"What on _earth_ are you doing?!" she asks as Katherine drowsily turns her head to observe her,

"We are now in our sixth hour of Monopoly" she explains as Elijah kisses her head,

"With less than a dozen moves between the four of us and no clear idea of who owns what…apparently this is _not_ a game you can play drunk"

Caroline is snuggling with Klaus as Rebekah pulls over an armchair and sits down, tucking her legs underneath her so that nobody realises that her panties are still in her bedroom,

"Did you have fun last night?" the young vampire asks sweetly but Rebekah is instantly on guard,

"What do you mean?" she demands but Caroline doesn't take the bait, Elijah does,

"Perhaps that we saw you disappearing with that man last night…heard you too, the walls here are abominably thin"

"Fraternising with a werewolf" Nik taunted as he reached over Caroline for the dice, Rebekah felt her temper flare up,

"Yes, just like _mother_ did all those years ago"

The atmosphere in the room immediately grew tense but after a moment Niklaus laughed it off,

"Truer words were never spoken" he rolled the dice,

"Ah, I have twelve…Caroline sweetheart"

"Go to Jail" she announced, "Go directly to jail, you are a heinous criminal and you are long overdue for jail"

Elijah chuckled, "My brother…you are quite the repeat offender you must have a wondrous cellmate"

Katherine snickered, "Maybe its Rebekah's werewolf"

The four of them dissolved into quiet laughter and Rebekah felt her cheeks burn in humiliation, her brothers always did this, always made her feel like a slattern when they took far more lovers than she did.

"Or perhaps it's you" she snapped at the doppelganger,

"God knows you're never happy unless you're sleeping with as many brothers as you can seduce! It'd certainly explain why you're allowed to decorate the entire house with your bloody roses!"

Katherine arches an eyebrow but doesn't respond, apparently content to watch the female Original smoulder with anger. Her eldest brother doesn't share that desire,

"She didn't purchase the flowers" Elijah explained curtly, propping himself up on both elbows so that he can face her,

"I did, my fiancé loves Bulgarian roses and I wanted to do something kind for her. That is the very nature of love Rebekah, kindness"

Tears burned in her eyes and she stormed off down the hall, slamming her bedroom door behind her.

She hears the shifting of the doona, "Who owns the water works again?" Klaus asks.

* * *

Francesca wakes up with a dull hangover and the gritty feeling of make-up still on her face.

By midday she's washed and recovered slightly but still hoping for a lazy day even though she knows she should be walking every inch of the French Quarter and garnering what information she can.

She's still dreaming of wearing sneakers for the day when the secret panel in her bedroom opens and her hand reaches under her pillow for her handgun before the familiar face steps through,

"_Jesus_" Francesca rests the gun in her lap, "You know when I told you about the secret passageways it wasn't so you could scare me to death"

Celeste shrugs, "Sorry but I just came back from Whitmore and wanted to know how everything was going here"

Francesca sighs and rubs her face tiredly, "Well, Rebekah finally showed up with a chip on her shoulder the size of Louisiana. Caroline Forbes arrived yesterday as well, as Bonnie Bennett said she would. I haven't had the chance to speak to her yet but Klaus seems ridiculously smitten, almost as much as Elijah is with Katherine Pierce"

She enjoys the momentary pain that flashes over Celeste's features, before going in for the kill,

"By the way, every time we've tried to break them up thus far they've just fallen more in love with each other, although the engagement is travelling along without any signs of progress"

The witch in front of her drew a ragged breath before composing herself, "Right well, Katherine is our first target, she's the least able to defend herself in a fight and considering the centuries of distrust between her and the Originals, it shouldn't be hard to convince them all that they're conspiring against one another"

"Rebekah _hates_ her" Francesca adds helpfully, "She can be used against Katherine, and hopefully if she gets caught doing so it will drive a wedge between the siblings. They're Mikaelson's after all" she laughs scornfully, "Sons and daughters of Mikael, hatred and distrust of each other is in their very blood"

Celeste rests a knee on the bed, "That's good, after Katherine we take out Elijah or maybe even overlap the two…after all, a heartbroken man? No-one will question irrational behaviour from him and he'll have to be acting pretty crazy before Klaus notices something out of the ordinary. Better still, if he's distracted and Caroline turns out to be more than a casual booty call for Klaus, he'll be vulnerable on two fronts…three if we can get something on Erik's nanny"

She waves her hand, "But I'm getting ahead of myself, what about Oliver? How'd he go?"

"Better than expected!"

The werewolf in question ambles into the room, holding a large takeaway coffee in hand,

"Been waiting for you to come out" he grumbles to Francesca,

"But anyway, I didn't make friends with Klaus last night but I did bone Rebekah if that helps"

Celeste and Francesca both raise their eyebrows but decline to warn Olly about Niklaus' unfortunate habit of killing his sister's less worthy suitors. Still, something troubles him,

"There's a new wolf in town" he reveals, "More than one actually, possibly a pack moving on our territory. Since Klaus did jack-shit for us, despite Hayley being one of us and the kid being royalty and whatnot we're still pretty exposed out there, 'specially since we know nothing about the bastard"

Francesca shrugs, "Help us take out Klaus and I'll gives werewolves the run of New Orleans" she promises.

Of course she'll slaughter every last member of the Crescent Pack and maybe torture Olly to death as punishment for working against his alpha but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

It would kill him.

And when the time came.

Hopefully it would kill the Original family as well.

* * *

A/N- Here we go. Also I'm tempted to write a one-shot about Marcel mourning his 'little sister's death' After all, he's been compelled to forget everything he knows about her so he'll believe that she is dead like everyone else, but the one time he held her he did it with such affection and he was willing to be compelled- something he's been fighting against from the get go- to protect her. And now he's the one being blamed for her murder but unable to mourn!


	7. Caroline III

A/N- A voila!

Thank-you to everyone who took the time to review, it means a lot to me!

* * *

For the first time in a week, there was quiet in _Le Coeur Du Jardin_.

No parties were being thrown, no balls were being held.

The garden wasn't lit up with multi-coloured lanterns so the beautiful people could drink and dine underneath the stars.

The ball room wasn't filled with the sound of swishing skirts and string quartets.

The ground floor parlour didn't have numerous rose filled vases vying for space amongst silver trays filled with hors d'oeuvres and endless cups of tea and coffee.

The dining room was empty of celebrities and witty banter.

It was three o'clock on a Thursday morning and most of the inhabitants of the Garden District mansion were in bed.

Although that didn't necessarily mean that they were asleep.

Caroline had been tossing and turning for the better part of two hours now and after a fitful doze, wakes up at five am, sees the tendrils of light sneaking past the heavy curtains and gives up with an irritated huff.

She rolls over, determined not to suffer through her insomnia alone to belatedly realise that the other side of the gargantuan bed was empty.

She reaches over and drops her hand on the thick doona and amazingly soft sheets, enjoying the sensation of the silk on her palm, but deciding she would much prefer to feel the rough cotton of the shirt Klaus slept in.

Because she has grown used to sleeping beside the Original Hybrid.

It was strange for the first few days, getting accustomed to sharing the space with another person but it gave her insight into the man who loved her.

Klaus never slept naked, which could be quite irritating if she woke up in the middle of the night wanting sex and had to get him undressed, he slept in track pants and a white cotton shirt that he seemed to have owned since at least 1942. He didn't immediately throw on his clothes after sex but once he figured that she was done for the night he'd slip into the comfortable outfit.

She had packed some sexy nightgowns for the trip but now she wore her regular boxers and old t-shirt.

It was very relaxed between the two of them, comfortable.

Well, emotionally anyway.

Physically…

Caroline suspected Klaus might be a stage one hoarder.

The first night she'd been stretching her hands under her pillow, enjoying the luxurious softness and her fingers had collided with a sketch book that he'd apparently forgotten about.

The morning they'd come home from the impromptu Monopoly game in Bourbon St, they'd been having lazy hangover sex when Caroline's knee had been impaled with a pencil.

She'd given the sheets a good shake-out after that and rid the bed of any artistic material and an eighteenth century copy of Dunn's poetry that Klaus didn't even remember owning in the first place and could now sleep without immediate fear of death.

Fear of disturbance on the other hand...

Klaus tended to sleep on his stomach and was an exceptionally quiet, peaceful sleeper, although occasionally he would tense and stop breathing for a few minutes which had panicked her at first, now she just waited patiently for him to inhale again. If she was feeling cuddly he would wrap an arm around her and draw her close but otherwise left her undisturbed while he slept. But if he was feeling horny all bets were off, she could wake up to the lightest touch across her stomach or halfway through an orgasm with his head under the sheets.

As she had yesterday morning.

She sighs and rubs her thighs together. Wonderful, she was hot for the missing hybrid.

With a frustrated sigh she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed shakes her hair back, uncovering her ears so that she could listen to the sounds of the night.

There were three steady heartbeats in the house. Katherine, Baby Erik and his nanny were all asleep.

There were two slower heartbeats, the dull thud of hearts pumped with stolen blood.

Elijah in his bedroom upstairs and Rebekah in hers at the other end of the house.

There was one final heartbeat accompanied by the slither of paint on canvass.

Bingo.

Klaus had an art studio at the front of the house, on the second floor so he could catch the sunrise.

That wasn't to say that he didn't have easels scattered around the house and the tools of the trade in several different rooms, but this was his official studio where entry was strictly invitation only and where Caroline assumed he retreated when he needed to think.

She barely brushes her knuckles on the door, waiting breathlessly, still terrified of rejection but the response came barely a second later,

"Come in love"

She slips into the room, noting the golden hour was upon them and Klaus stood with his back to the window, holding the brush between two fingers as he looked up at her.

He had a streak of purple across his forehead and Caroline would wager her tuition that he hadn't so much as mixed red and blue together since he'd started painting.

She'd learnt pretty quickly that the colours that ended up on Klaus' skin or clothes and the ones he actually used that day never coincided.

"I didn't wake you?" he queried as she leant against the door, she shook her head,

"I can't sleep" she whispered, enjoying the quiet of the house, the sensation that the world beyond the door didn't really exist at this hour.

It was just the two of them.

She nodded at the canvass, "What are you painting?"

He frowned, "I'm not sure yet, hopefully not another snowflake"

She giggles and moves forward, feeling mischievously sexy,

"You could paint me" she suggests as she lifts her t-shirt over her head and drops it on the floor, baring her breasts to him with confidence that she had never felt before starting college and realising her self-worth and value.

Confidence that only grows when she sees the effect she has on the powerful hybrid.

He eyes her hungrily, stepping out from behind the easel and closing the distance between them, his hand comes up to cup her right breast, squeezing and pinching the nipple, smirking when she gasps and pushes onto her toes to give him better access.

He lowers his head and kisses both her nipples, running his tongue over them before stepping backward.

"Oh I could never paint you nude sweetheart, I'm far too greedy to share…but if you wouldn't mind posing so I could commit you to memory?"

Caroline laughs and curls up on an armchair where she can see the canvas.

At first glance she sees a forest lit up by a breath-taking sunset.

At second glance she sees the outline for a village built beside a wide river.

She sees the tents and even with only a basic middle-school education about Native Americans she can recognise the wattle and daub houses that would have been used on the land that would eventually become Mystic Falls.

It really was a shame that Alaric had died before they had managed to call truce with the Originals, the history buff in him would have loved the chance to question the tenth century Vikings about every aspect of their human lives.

"So why can't you sleep my love?" Klaus asks as he squats to rummage through his paint shelves where the pigments that cost more than Katherine's shoe collection were housed.

She shrugs, "I don't know I just feel restless…weird you know, like I've forgotten something or I have to be somewhere"

He frowns and tilts his head curiously, "Why on earth would you have to be somewhere at this hour? Unless you've booked an international flight and neglected to tell me"

"Damn, that's it" she deadpans, "I booked a one way flight to New Zealand, have a nice life"

He grins, "I've never been to New Zealand but I have heard lovely things about it" he shrugs,

"Send me a postcard then"

Caroline had been partially expecting declarations that he would follow her to the ends of the earth but they had moved past that intense stage of their courtship.

And she likes this stage.

She enjoys feeling like an adult when she wakes up next to him in the morning, the casual way they'll go for coffee or stroll around the town while he shows her his favourite haunts and the famous sites. They aren't going on dates anymore it's more intimate and somehow more relaxed than that.

Her heart flutters when she sees him dressed up and she loves how his jaw drops when she wears something beautiful but any nervousness she might have felt- okay, that she did feel when she was driving to NOLA- is gone.

But she does notice how easily she's fitting into life in New Orleans and every time she checks the large calendar Katherine stuck on the kitchen wall to try and coordinate the Mikaelson siblings and sees an event she would love to attend that takes place after her two week holiday is due to end, there's a part of her brain that teases her with the idea of a deferred semester.

Nope.

That won't be happening.

She's going to enjoy the rest of the week and then drive on back to Virginia thank-you very much.

So why does she feel so…

"Caroline!"

She nearly jumps out of her skin and sits up as Klaus takes her by the shoulders and gives her a gentle shake, "What?!"

His eyes are bright with worry, "I've been talking to you for the last five minutes love and you haven't uttered a word, I thought you were asleep but your eyes have been wide open"

She blinks, finally noticing how dry her eyes felt, "I…" she swallows and wraps her arms around herself, suddenly feeling very exposed,

"Something's wrong Klaus" she murmurs, "I don't know what but something…"

The doorknob creaks as it's opened and Klaus flashes across the room to grab her t-shirt, throwing it to her and blocking her from view as she hurriedly puts it on.

Katherine Pierce sweeps into the room wearing a silk nightgown that could easily double as a dress for a red carpet event. Despite having been asleep when Caroline last checked, she manages to look like she's just finished being made up for a photo shoot, her hair is deliciously rumpled and she carries the faint hint of roses into the studio.

She holds out a black phone that Caroline immediately recognises as hers,

"You left this charging in the parlour last night" she explains, looking pale in the morning light, "It's been buzzing incessantly for the last ten minutes"

Caroline grabs the phone just as Elijah comes into the room and drapes a dressing gown over Katherine's shoulders, "Do cover yourself my darling"

She quirks an eyebrow, the gown is decadent and seductive but no less suggestive than the clothes she wears during the day, still she ties the robe around her frame as Caroline checks the number with Klaus looking over her shoulder.

When she doesn't recognise it immediately she frowns and returns the call.

Three rings and then a chirpy voice of a stranger, "_Mystic Falls Hospital, this is Victoria speaking_"

Her blood went cold, "Um hi…this is Caroline F-Forbes, I'm returning a call?"

A pause then, "_Oh yes, hello Caroline. I'm afraid I have some bad news, a Ms Elizabeth Forbes was in a car accident and gravely injured, she was brought in and you are listed as her emergency contact_"

The plastic backing on the phone cracked as all air left Caroline's body, she began to shake violently as she struggled to breathe.

The device is pulled from her hand and she hears a British accent asking several questions and repeating the words 'Yes' or 'and' intermittently.

A glass of water is pressed to her lips and she splutters before sipping the cool liquid.

"I could slap her if you like" a distant voice offers before the familiar tones of one of the doppelgangers colourfully tells that person to go away.

A blonde man with bright blue eyes is standing in front of her and they are suddenly alone as her sleeping gear is removed and her limbs lifted and lowered as new clothes are put on her. Glancing down she sees him slipping ballet flats onto her feet, adjusting the black harem pants at her ankles and tucking her bra strap under her green t-shirt,

"Caroline" he cups her face in his hands, "Look at me…I know you've had a shock sweetheart but I need you to listen"

Klaus kisses her lips quickly, "Elijah is going to drive you to the airport, he has connections there, he will have the very first plane rerouted to Virginia and there will be a car ready and waiting to take you straight through any and all obstacles to the hospital. I will ring them and send through any updates, I'll also get whichever of your friends answers their phone first to stand by your mother's side until you get there. Nod if you understand me"

Tears flood her eyes and blur her vision but she does manage to nod causing him to sigh in relief and take her hand as he led her downstairs, out the front door where the morning light was growing brighter by the minute to the car idling in the driveway.

He tucks her into the front passenger seat and brushes the hair from her face, "Be well sweetheart"

She opens her mouth a few times before finding her words, "Um…my stuff…"

"Katerina will pack it up for you" Elijah tells her from the driver's seat, "She's already put the necessities in your handbag"

She sees the bag in question is sitting on the floor mat at her feet, "Thank her for me" she turns to Klaus, he nods and closes her door,

"I love you" she blurts out through the open window as the car begins reversing quickly.

She catches a glimpse of shock on his face.

She's too consumed with worry for her mother to fully realise what she had just said.

* * *

"Here"

True to Klaus' word, Elijah has half the staff at the airport rushing to fill his orders.

A flight that was intended for Bahrain is now making an unscheduled stop for Virginia and he guides her to the waiting area outside the gate as the plane is readied.

She is jiggling her knees nervously and glancing at her phone when the attendant marches over to inform them that they are able to board.

She climbs to her feet shakily and Elijah takes her arm, "I am sure that everything will be alright Caroline"

On impulse she hugs him, desperate for any form of comfort and he woodenly pats her on the back,

"Thank Klaus for me" she says, giggling with a touch of hysteria when she realises she has nearly echoed her request from earlier,

"But I don't love you I'm sorry"

Elijah's smirk is so much like his brother's, "Katerina will be glad to hear that at least"

He guides her right into her first class seat and the plane is rolling down the runway with only a third of its passengers on board ten minutes later.

She is watching the window and drumming her fingers impatiently, absolutely certain that the plane is going far too slow.

Her mother needs her dammit.

Deciding that air safety regulations could go to hell she is rummaging through her handbag she belatedly realises that she left her phone on the seat in the airport terminal.

Hopefully Elijah picked it up.

* * *

_"Stefan it's me. If you do not pick up your phone and call me back in the next two minutes I will kill you and everyone you've ever met"_

_"Elena. Sheriff Forbes has been in an accident, get yourself and your whores to Mystic Falls General immediately if you wish to live"_

_"Jeremy. Yes I have your number, I also have the impatience of a homicidal psychopath. Sheriff Forbes has been in an accident, tell the vampire closest to you that they needed to be at her bedside thirty seconds ago"_

Klaus stands glaring at the three cell phones sitting on the dining room tables.

His, Katherine's and Rebekah's. Elijah, ever the calm and collected gentleman had managed to leave for the airport not only dressed in a three piece suit but with the full assortment of keys, wallet and phone.

He had called every supernatural in Mystic Falls and had not yet received a single response. His frustration was mounting, Caroline was frantic with fear for her mother and he was unable to help her.

He knew the terror she was feeling, he had felt it when Hayley and his son had been kidnapped.

Katherine is sitting across from him, her arms leaning on the table in a decidedly ungraceful posture as she watches him worriedly,

"Something is wrong" she tells him and he resists the urge to rip her throat out in frustration,

"Really, you don't say!" he snaps but she doesn't take the bait,

"Something feels wrong" she continues, "It doesn't add up, why the hell is no-one answering their phones? It's early but if Caroline's mom has been injured…Damon adores Liz, he at least should be answering"

Klaus waves a hand impatiently, he doesn't have time for her stupidity, he demands the number for the hospital and she reels it off automatically,

"_Mystic Falls General Hospital, Front desk this is Claire speaking_"

He sighs in relief, "Hello Claire, this is Klaus I'm enquiring about a patient who was brought in this morning. Sheriff Forbes"

"_Um…okay, one second_"

He's not placed on hold, instead the fleshy sound of a hand being placed over the receiver reaches his ears as the woman tries to mute the hum of conversation,

"_Okay I'm back_" she tells him unnecessarily, "_I'm afraid there's been some miscommunication, Liz…Sheriff Forbes hasn't been brought in this morning, no-one has…May I ask who's calling?_"

Someone with the ability to burn that one horse town to the ground if he doesn't get the information he requires.

"You're mistaken" he tells her through gritted teeth, "Check your records this time, not the underpaid co-worker sitting next to you. I want an update on her condition and to speak to whichever surgeon is handling her case or so help me I will…"

"_Hang on_" the woman interrupts him before his wondrous eloquence in describing violent torture could strike fear into her heart. He hears the phone being handed over and then a familiar tone filters down the line,

"_This is Sheriff Forbes, how can I help?_"

Katherine sits up in confusion which Klaus is sure mirrors his own,

"Sheriff?" he blurts the word in disbelief, "You sound remarkably well for a woman who was grievously injured in a car accident"

"_Klaus?!_" There it is, the disapproval and barely veiled hate, definitely Caroline's mother,

"_What the hell are you talking about?"_

"Caroline…she received a call this morning from the hospital stating that you were there as a…patient"

The last word falls dead from his lips as the spiel from one hour earlier plays back through his head,

_Mystic Falls Hospital, this is Victoria speaking…_

_A Ms Elizabeth Forbes…_

_You are listed as her emergency contact…_

The proper title, the title Claire had given him was Mystic Falls General Hospital.

Everyone in the small town knew who Sheriff Forbes was and called her by her position or by her nickname, and Caroline would have been listed as her next of kin, not her emergency contact, not when she lived several hours away at Whitmore.

"_Listen to me" he orders as chills run down his spine, "Caroline is headed back to Mystic Falls but I think she's being led into a…_"

His sentence is cut off as the sound of an explosion roars down the line separating him from the mother of the woman he loved. It is followed by the sound of screams but then…

The line goes dead.

* * *

A/N- So this progressed faster than I thought it would, I apologise for any incorrections regarding hospital procedure in this chapter.


	8. Elena II

A/N- Hello everyone! Man updating comes so easily to me when I have a two thousand word assignment due in two days.

My thanks to all the lovely reviews, especially Avalon The Lady Killer, your last review actually gave me the inspiration for the next Katherine chapter.

Also, I'm getting a lot of emails that people are 'following' me or 'favouriting' me, is there anywhere I can check these numbers? I can seem to find it in my profile.

Now I know everyone here is a huge Klaroline fan but this event is happening in MF so we are going to pay some attention to Elena- who I try to capture as both sweet but not exactly the sharpest fang in the mouth.

Anyhow- this chapter is rated M- seriously rated M.

* * *

The water was sparkling under the weak afternoon sun as Elena frolicked in the water with the two men she loved the most.

She, Stefan and Damon were playing some form of tag that was less catching the other person and more gentle tugs on ankles and hands as they swam through the lake.

No longer needing to breathe as often as a living human, Elena allowed herself to sink to the very bottom of the body of water and buried her feet into the soft silt as she opened her eyes and saw herself in another world.

One in which the light barely penetrated and creatures she didn't even know existed crawled in the near darkness.

There's a disturbance above her head and she looks up to see two pairs of legs and then one completely naked body as Damon is forcibly pushed down into the lake and nearly reaches her outstretched hand before kicking his way back to the surface.

She rolls her eyes and ignores the sting of the water as she contemplates swimming back up into the world.

For a moment she wants to re-enact the scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean but figures there's no point when she doesn't have a camera or anyone to appreciate it.

When she comes up for air she's nearly brained by a paddle from her families canoe, she uses her supernatural strength to propel herself out of the way in time and once safe, glares at the two supposedly grown adult men in front of her who are clearly pretending the paddles are swords.

Stefan clears his throat, "Sorry, are you okay?"

She glares and crosses her arms, which is a lot more effective when she isn't treading water and completely naked,

"Really? Why can't you two ever find a hobby that doesn't involve hitting each other with something?"

Damon points his paddle straight at Stefan, "He started it"

She rolls her eyes again, "Real mature Salvatore, last I checked- _you're_ the older brother!"

He shrugs, "You're the older sister but I hear you blame Jeremy for shit all the time, hell last weekend you blamed him for global warming"

Elena tries stamping her foot but loses her balance and nearly goes under the water again, "I didn't blame him for global warming entirely, I just pointed out that maybe he should be less wasteful of our natural resources"

Damon and Stefan share a look and she can see that the memory of the half hour debate/argument between her and Jeremy is still fresh in their mind and about to be brought up for reconsideration.

Well, she knows how to stop them in their tracks.

"I'm going inside" she threatens, diving under the waterline and swimming barely five metres before a hand snakes around her ankle and drags her squealing into Stefan's back,

"We're sorry" he pouts, kissing her shoulder, "Very sorry"

Damon floats until he's brushing up against her, "We are" he agrees, smirking as he cups her face, pushing her hair out of the way,

"How about we make it up to you?"

Both of her men are naked and their bodies, particularly their lower halves are making their desire for her known, her own body feels flushed and she wraps an arm around Damon's neck for support,

"Kiss me" she demands and he lowers his head to hers, his lips parting hers and his tongue sneaking into her mouth while Stefan continues kissing her bare back and pushes her hair over her left shoulder for better access to her neck.

She's exceptionally thankful that she had her hair cut in New York, long hair is pretty and all but irritating as hell in water and during sex, sticking to her body, getting in the way…

She breaks Damon's kiss with a moan and tilts her head back so Stefan can kiss her while his brother focuses his attention on her now exposed breasts, his tongue plunders her mouth and she spreads her legs wide open as two hands start eagerly snaking down over her stomach, playing with her curls,

"How are we going to do this?" she asks as she breaks for air, slinging her free arm behind her head and wrapping it around Stefan's neck to bring both men closer to her and keep her balance.

Damon's mouth is on her left breast, sucking and teasing the nipple as Stefan's fingers tease her clit,

"Same way we do everything" he laughs as his erection presses into her back, "Go in blind and hope we figure it out"

She laughs and then moans as Damon's fingers slip inside her, searching for her g-spot and she tilts her head back for another kiss from Stefan as she quivers with pleasure.

She can feel Stefan guiding himself to her entrance and he thrusts in slowly before withdrawing and sliding backwards, she feels momentary worry before Damon's kissing her, distracting her while Stefan plays with her ass.

Usually when she's with both of her men, Stefan takes her from the front and Damon has her from behind because even though Damon is longer, Stefan is thicker, but they haven't been together like this for long and she hasn't been with Damon for so long that she will gladly take this change in program.

She nips Damon's lower lip and wraps her legs around his waist, "Now" she begs and he quickly enters her, both of them groaning at the pleasant sensation, Stefan is breathing in her ear, his fingers probing, "Are you ready Elena?"

She nods and kisses the corner of his mouth as he slowly slides inside, she winces at the momentary discomfort but it fades and she's left feeling wonderfully complete.

"Never apart" she whispers.

She made that oath for them that challenge and war cry.

She's missed this so much, their unholy trinity.

Both men are gentle but thorough and she surrenders to the pleasure, her second climax bringing the three of them to release. Their desire heats the very water around them and when they clamber onto the shore, the whole world seems brighter and clearer.

* * *

The small fire has died down but when she emerges from the house wearing tracksuit pants and her university hoodie Damon and Stefan have built it into a pretty decent bonfire with a long piece of metal set up in the middle.

"We should totally have a roast for dinner" Stefan suggests as Damon sets up the pile of dry twigs and logs away from the shoreline but Elena disagrees.

"First night at the cabin is always pizza night" she explains, "Jeremy once refused to get out of the car when mom tried feeding us minestrone instead"

And she'd taken her sleeping bag into the forest and been determined to sleep there until pizza night was reinstated.

"Jeremy and Matt are bringing more s'mores ingredients" she offers instead, only to have Damon make a face,

"American desserts today are too sweet" he complains, "Seriously, half the time I grab a drink my brain goes into shock from their damn sugar intake"

"Maybe you should stop live feeding" Stefan suggests cheekily as the three of them settle down to watch the blue and orange flames, Damon snarls,

"I would if you would stop pumping sugar water into the blood bags"

Elena giggles and leans her head against Damon's shoulder, enjoying the tranquillity of the day.

When Jeremy and Matt arrive that night, they bring five large pizzas but only themselves. Elena waves them over to the fire and looks in vain for Bonnie behind them.

But she's nowhere to be found.

"Where's Bonnie?" she asks curiously, as Matt sits down and opens the first box, pepperoni is her favourite and she takes a slice eagerly.

Damon however, is not as easily distracted, "Judgy not making an appearance this week?"

Matt is caught with his mouth open, he hums and haws before casting a guilty glance to Jeremy,

"Nope" is all Elena's brother has to say about Bonnie once again refusing to socialise with her best friend.

That night, both of her men hold her as she cries.

* * *

There's no set routine at the lake house, breakfast is whenever someone decides to start cooking it and lunch is pretty much when Matt gets hungry, otherwise it's just long hours on hammocks piled under blankets for the cold weather, long hikes through the forest or just sitting on the porch and enjoying the peace and quiet.

For most of them anyway.

However, Elena can't help but notice that Damon takes to furtively checking his cell phone and driving into the General store once a day on the pretext of buying groceries or live feeding but comes back more and more frustrated and casting meaningful glances to Stefan as soon as he's out of the car, sometimes followed by a shake of the head or a nod.

And she instinctively knows that when Matt's car won't start and his boss at the Grill doesn't wail on him for not being able to make his shift but actually extends his time off for an extra week because 'he's such a dedicated worker' that Damon is behind it.

When Jeremy rings Bonnie and invites her up for the weekend because there's going to be a music festival only an hour drive away and Stefan got them all last minute tickets only to be refused because she's 'too busy', Elena sees Damon's grim face and knows that whatever is happening could involve her best friend.

So the morning of the festival she invites everyone for an early walk just as Jeremy and Matt sit down for an x-box game, figuring that they'll bow out in favour of beating their imaginary characters bloody.

They barely make a mile into the forest before she spins on her heal and glares at them both,

"Okay" she blows out her breath, "We're out of range of everyone who could possibly be around, what's going on?"

Both brothers shoot each other a guilty glance before opening their mouths but she holds up a hand,

"No lies" she demands, "Don't even think of trying to protect me, I can look after myself…tell me what is wrong!"

Stefan sighs and jams his hands into his pockets while Damon's jaw clicks, she maintains her ground, standing with the men she loves in the forest, the trees overheard allowing little dapples of sunlight to make their way onto their bodies, the soft ground underneath and the critters and creatures in distance.

Damon is dressed in his usual dark colours, forgoing a jacket because there's no outsiders around to wonder why he isn't cold. Stefan almost his complete opposite in cargo pants and a red jacket she bought for him last Christmas because she'd wanted him to look festive.

She didn't realise it this morning but she'd picked up on their nerves and dressed herself as if she was going into a fight.

Combat boots, jeans, leather jacket and her hair tied back in a rare ponytail. She was on edge and if a rogue vampire attacked her right now- unlikely, even with her luck- she'd definitely stand a chance.

After all, she'd won against Katherine.

So she stands there waiting patiently for one of them to give in first.

She's honestly surprised when it's Damon,

"Ever since you, Blondie and Sabrina went off to college, good ole Mayor Hopkins has been plotting something" he admits in a terse voice,

"We don't know what it is exactly" Stefan continues, "Only that he disbanded the last council and formed a new one, no founding family members allowed, all people who lost either a family or friend to a supernatural death"

She nods, following along so far, understanding why this is bad.

Damon had controlled the council right up until Pastor Young had staged the coup and tried to kill them all before taking his own life.

After, he'd had a seat but Liz had ruled everything- which had still worked in their favour- primarily the Founding Family members wanted to protect and preserve the town they'd built and were always keen to take the path of least resistance provided nobody got hurt or killed.

Mayor Hopkins was an outsider however, someone who'd stayed around only until Bonnie's mom had bailed and then left his daughter to be raised by Grandma Sheila. He'd come back only because a dozen people before him had turned down the position for mayor and Liz had got desperate.

Since that day, he'd made it clear that he detested any and all supernatural creatures- except for his daughter of course.

But Elena can also see things from Mayor Hopkins perspective, the council was originally founded to protect the humans of Mystic Falls, and at one point it was headed by Damon, Liz and Carol whose primary interest had been protecting the supernaturals in the town. At least with his council members he wouldn't have to worry about them bending over backwards to accommodate them.

Although she sincerely hoped he didn't decide to throw vervein in the water supply again.

Which reminded her.

"What about the treaty?" she asks, shifting her weight as her feet start to get cold.

"The one Katherine had him agree to- peaceful coexistence and whatnot?"

During the Silas debacle, Katherine had met with Mayor Hopkins and Liz to arrange for Rebekah to be fished out of the safe in the Quarry and somehow had ended up negotiating a peace treaty between him and them.

Bonnie's dad wouldn't hunt the vampires and they wouldn't hunt humans, they wouldn't kill humans and he wouldn't kill them.

She'd even added the bonus of the Original family promising to call ahead every time they were headed their way and making Mystic Falls a no-go zone for supernatural creatures.

Stefan raises his eyebrows, "I don't think we've broken it so far, we haven't killed anyone at least…Damon?"

He rolls his eyes, "No I haven't killed anyone Stef-an"

"So he has to honour the treaty right!" Elena interrupts before her men start bickering, "If we don't kill anyone he can't harm us"

Both Salvatore's give her an identical look of love and pity.

She's always had the most hope and idealism out of all of them. if Klaus can honour the deals they lay out with him, then surely Bonnie's dad can…

Oh.

Suddenly she can't remember how to breathe and the world seems as if it's spinning all too fast.

Elena leans backwards and her bum finds the rough bark of a tree that scratches through her jeans.

She press her feet into the earth to ground herself as Stefan comes forward and rubs her shoulder gently, Damon hovering as he tries not to be his usual abrupt self.

It's not that he doesn't care, it's that he's not one for denial.

Elena is however.

She shakes her head, "Bonnie would never do anything like that" she argues, "We're her friends, her family; she loves us"

"She loves you" Stefan assures her, "But you can't deny that the last semester was tense, she's angry at you and Caroline for the choices you've made"

She's angry that Elena had scorned the world and taken two men, two brothers as her lovers.

She's angry that Caroline had decided to give her feelings for Klaus a chance and gone to New Orleans to be with him.

"There's anger and then there's hunting us!" She looks to Damon, "That's why you kept trying to lure her here isn't it, you wanted to see if she's working with her father"

He grinds his teeth and looks into the forest, glaring at the foliage, "All we know right now is that Hopkins is probably planning something and Bonnie might know what it is"

She sighs and takes their hands, leading them out of the forest,

"I don't think Bonnie would work against us" she tells them firmly, "But even if she does…We have Jeremy and Matt on our side…even if she hates me, she loves them both too much to risk their lives"

* * *

The festival that night is wild and wonderful enough to make them forget their worries.

The bands are great and Elena loses sight of her brother and Matt, panicking for a solid half hour before she finds them under an ancient oak with some hacky-sack hipsters sharing a cigarette and whisky while discussing American politics.

She rolls her eyes and heads back to the stage area where Stefan and Damon are drinking from red cups and comparing notes about Woodstock, not that either of them remember it all too well but Damon was hanging backstage with the bands while they haggled over being paid and Stefan vaguely recalls being in the crowd with Lexie trying to figure out if the rioting would start before or after the mass dehydration set in.

Caught up in the moment, Elena's handbag is now filled with the CDs of all the bands that are playing that night, and a few numbers from some of the guitarists and singers- male and female- that she shows her men to make them jealous.

Both of them manage to maintain their semblance of pride and dignity although barely ten minutes later the scraps of paper have been shredded into confetti at her dancing feet.

The five of them squeeze every moment of pleasure from the night, not realising that it will be the last time they are ever truly carefree and happy together.

* * *

They get home around five am and despite their determination to climb into bed, none of them seem to make it past the living room.

Their phones are either low on battery or left in handbags or jacket pockets, forgotten as they relive their best memories from the night as they curl up in hammocks or pass out on couches.

Elena wakes up around eight and feeling thirsty, grabs herself one of the blood bags Damon had stored in the veggie crisper in the fridge, convenient for the vampires and out of sight for the humans.

He had absolutely no faith in Jeremy or Matt's concern for their nutrition.

She drinks slowly as she decides to upload the awesome photos from last night onto her facebook page.

She grabs her phone from her handbag and sees there's barely enough battery life left before she drops her gaze and dread clenches her heart.

She has eight missed calls.

In her world, that means something is wrong.

Her panic gets worse when she sees that the calls are all from Klaus, Katherine or Rebekah.

Oh God.

Caroline!

"Damon, Stefan!" her voice has them stumbling into the kitchen,

"What's wrong?!" Damon asks as Elena accesses her voicemail.

"_Elena. Sheriff Forbes has been in an accident, get yourself and your whores to Mystic Falls General immediately if you wish to live" _

Damon flashes to the living room and grabs his car keys, "On my way"

Elena follows him to the Camaro, climbing into the passenger side before realising that she's bare foot.

Never mind, she can grabs some shoes back at the Boarding House.

Stefan climbs into the backseat as Damon revved the engine and kicked up dust as he reversed down the dirt road and onto the highway.

"I left a note for Matt and Jeremy" Stefan says as they sped down the empty road, "They can follow later"

Elena's hands shook as her phone rang and she answered it immediately, not even checking the number, "Caroline?"

The reception was so bad she could barely recognise the voice on the other end,

"_Ka…er…ne_"

"Katherine" she raised her voice even though she knew that it wouldn't help, "We got the message, we were at the lake house, we're headed back now"

The reply is so garbled she can only make out the words '_Don't_' and '_Stop_'

She rolls her eyes, "We won't stop for red lights" she promises before hanging up.

The trip between the lake house and Mystic Falls is usually two hours, Damon manages to get them there in forty-five minutes, pulling up to the hospital, parking illegally on the curb and storming straight inside.

Stefan hurries after him and Elena is hot on his heels until she notices something out of the corner of her eye.

A man, dressed in camo and with a rifle on his back is headed through the doors to the ER, that in itself isn't a big deal after the spree of 'wild animal attacks' when Damon first came into town, there were now tons of hunters who came into Mystic Falls for the weekend looking for big game.

And typically they ended up in the ER with injuries ranging from broken limbs to accidentally shooting themselves.

But somehow, seeing this man sends a chill up her spine and the way he stares at Stefan as he nods and hurries past him…

Elena lingers in the ambulance bay, watching the man intently, trying to understand what is wrong with the picture until she sees him reach into his pocket and draw out a black object.

Still, her brain is making it out to be a cell phone until she sees the pin on his finger as he throws it underarm into the ER.

"_Look out_!" she screams uselessly almost at the same time as the grenade explodes in the room full of innocent humans and her two vampire men.

The hunter is barely a dozen feet away from her and with practised ease he pulls the rifle from his back and aims it straight for her heart.

Elena's eyes go dark as the monster in her emerges onto her face, her fangs shooting from her gums.

He's looking down the barrel but he never gets to pull the trigger.

She snaps his neck in one fluid movement and stands triumphantly over his dead body.

"Elena!"

Damon races from the building with Liz tucked under his arm and Stefan's limp body thrown over his shoulder. He has a large splinter protruding from his forehead,

"I think Hopkins just made his move" he tells her grimly.

She only nods.

* * *

A/N- I take suggestions and criticisms if you think my work can be improved but 'More Klaroline smut' is not a suggestion people, it doesn't work on the VD writers and it won't work on me, I'm putting as much sex in there for them as I can already.  
If you want more Klaroline smut, check out my other stories  
Alpha Female- Chapters 5&amp;6  
New Paths- Chapters 16&amp;17  
New Lives- Chapters 15&amp;16


	9. Katherine II

A/N- Hey Guys,

So this chapter is dedicated to Avalon the Lady Killer who might as well have written it because they gave me the prompt and prodded my muse in the right direction although this does take a little away from MF I'm afraid.

Also is it weird or just a point of their generation that all the supernatural's in Mystic Falls had each other's number? Up to and including Klaus- did they just take a break from their enmity, pull up a table in the Grill, sit down and program their numbers into everyone's cellphones?  
Oooh, dibs on that one-shot.

* * *

"Caroline, love pick up your damn phone and call me, your mother is fine but you're walking into a trap!"

Katherine stared at the cell phone in her own hand, the moment the explosion had essentially ended the call between Klaus and Sheriff Forbes the Hybrid had tossed the device to her and told her to 'call everyone'

She had tried. Damon wasn't answering his phone, neither was Stefan, Matt or Jeremy.

She had managed to get through to Elena but the reception was so bad she'd only been able to make out that they were at the Lake House.

Not that they would be for long.

The second they heard that there had been an explosion in their town they'd go running back to check the damage and go walking right into the trap.

Probably figuring out full well before they even kicked over the engine that it was a trap but knowing that had never slowed them down any.

In the vain hope that perhaps Elijah's usual proficiency to move heaven and earth for those he cared for had suddenly failed him, Katherine rings her fiance.

"_Katerina_"

In spite of everything, hearing Elijah murmur her name over the phone gave the worried woman a momentary sense of calm.

Until she remembered the reason she was calling him in the first place, "Stop the plane" she tells him urgently, "Get Caroline back here now, it's a trap!"

She can sense more than hear her fiancé coming to a dead stop,

"_I'm at the car now_" he says, dread colouring his voice, "_The plane took off half an hour ago and Caroline left her phone in the waiting lounge_"

She has him on speaker phone so Klaus hears what he is saying and having known the man for centuries, she predicts with perfect accuracy which antique vase he will take from the open glass cabinet and which window he will shatter into smithereens when he hurls it onto the front lawn.

Still, she's annoyed, this is her house too and she's the one who will have to order the repairs.

"We can call the driver waiting for her in Virginia" she points out to the frustrated hybrid,

"Give him a message to relay and have her hop on the first plane back here"

"It'll be too late by then" Klaus roars at her,

"Do you honestly think, knowing full well that her friends could be in danger that she would abandon them? She's not you Katherine!"

"_Niklaus!_" Elijah's voice rings clearly from the cell phone, "_Brother_"

Those two words are admonishment but Klaus only scowls and turns away, his silence allows Elijah to take control of the situation,

"_Firstly we have to determine who is responsible for this attack against Mystic Falls_"

"_Who would do this?_"

"Tyler?" Klaus suggests, "God knows he hates me and would likely be furious to have found out that Caroline was vacationing here"

Katherine shook her head, "No, even he isn't suicidal enough to go up against you and the entire Mystic Falls coven which is what he'd be doing by luring Caroline into a trap. Besides she received a fake call from a woman, whoever does this has allies and since you and I started working on the same side we've lost a lot of our enemies. Tyler doesn't have access to anyone who'd be willing to confront us both"

She is given a small nod of acknowledgement and can hear Elijah driving rapidly through the streets, she knows that he is trying to distract Klaus long enough for him to get home and will gladly aide him in the charade,

"The New Orleans witches?" Klaus offers "Caroline had been feeling restless all morning"

Katherine waved away that option as well, "The witches have no reason to go after Caroline, those that helped during the Silas debacle owe her their lives or freedom and if they were after you, they would have attacked you here where they can use their ancestral magic"

Klaus swears loudly in frustration and flashes upstairs, returning a moment later with his wallet and keys in hand.

Katherine had already figured where he was headed and, unwilling to physically block the front door lest he literally go through her, follows him to the garage,

"Klaus, we made a deal with Hopkins, if you go barging into Mystic Falls without telling him he's going to gather up a hunting party for the coven"

"He probably already has" he tells her, climbing into his convertible, "Think about it, who else is stupid enough and has a high enough opinion of themselves to break a peace treaty and attack the Mystic Falls coven? Possibly knowing full well that doing so pits him against the likes of Damon Salvatore and myself"

She stopped and considered his logic, it made sense, but the idea of Klaus returning to the place that had seen two of his brothers' die unnerved her.

"What if they didn't set the trap for Caroline?" she argues, placing a hand on the door of the convertible and hoping Klaus won't suddenly reverse and cost her a limb,

"What if she's the bait in the hopes of killing you? Hopkins could kill the entire coven one at a time or he could kill you and wipe out hundreds of thousands of vampires at once"

The engine revved threateningly and Klaus was giving her a look that had made entire armies toe the ground and seriously reconsider their allegiances.

Katherine herself is quickly trying to remember whether or not her new found freedom included freedom from torture or threats of death when Elijah's car shoots down the gravelled driveway, effectively blocking Klaus in.

With a sigh of relief she steps backwards, and allows her fiancé to tag in.

"Brother" he flashes to the car and claps a hand on Niklaus' shoulder, his thumb touching his neck.

He does this more often than people realise.

After a childhood of abuse, Niklaus lost the ability to connect with people using physical contact, Elijah quickly figured out that touching his brother calmed him down.

But Caroline Forbes is halfway to a massacre with a spot already reserved for her in a mass grave.

"Katerina is right" he begins, not having heard anything Katherine had said but knowing her intimately enough that he could predict what arguments she would have used.

"You cannot go into Mystic Falls without giving the Mayor reason to attack you and your death will result in the deaths of the entire coven, not to mention a greater part of the New Orleans faction…however, Mayor Hopkins will likely be expecting you to come to Caroline's aid, not I"

At this point of popular culture, Katherine knows that this is termed as a 'record scratch' moment.

Klaus can't enter Mystic Falls without risk of dying, so Elijah offers to go instead.

"No" she tells him as the two men make tracks to the car,

"I'll be in Richmond" Niklaus warns as Katherine pushes him out of the way to get to his brother,

"Are you _insane_?! Have you forgotten that Mystic Falls is where _all_ of your family members go to die…_Elijah_!"

He pulls her into his arms and gives her a quick, hard kiss to her temple,

"I love you my darling, tell Raina that Erik is not to leave her sight until we're safely home. Try to keep our exit from the kingdom hidden until we know when we can return"

"I don't want anyone with the last name Mikaelson anywhere near Virginia!" Katherine exclaimed while Klaus once more got out his phone to try and contact anyone in Mystic Falls.

"I especially don't want the King and Prince outside of New Orleans when half the factions are still in turmoil!"

He hesitates, "Katerina…we can't let our home town be rid of supernatural creatures. If we lose Mystic Falls it makes us look weak, it sends out the message that our friends are vulnerable and so are we. It is an attack on our family and I can't let that happen. Not if we want to rule the Quarter without challenge"

"Fine" she gives him a tight smile, "You go to Virginia, I'll go spend the night with Giacomo"

Giacomo Farnese.

He was one of the greatest knowledge collectors in the supernatural world, if not the greatest. He had been gathering information about every creature, chasing down myths and legends for years as well as compiling compendiums about those he encountered personally.

His love for Katherine was the worst kept secret in New Orleans. His gallantry and chivalry prevented him from attempting to seduce her away from Elijah, hence her fiancé's lack of fear regarding the friendship between him and her.

He grins, "Enjoy the endless poetry about the depths of your eyes then"

"Wait," she grabs his hand, a thought suddenly coming to her,

"In 1864, the Civil War was still raging and slaves were being mistreated worse than ever. I know Damon, somewhere in Mystic Falls there will have been an underground railroad. Find it, it may be your path out of town"

Another fierce kiss and the car is reversing out of the driveway and the sound as it tears along the road roars through the quiet of the Garden District.

She takes a deep breath, wonders if Mother Mary would consider a bribe or the prayer of a lapsed Christian and heads inside.

* * *

Raina Lakes, Erik's babysitter, recommended by Cami, hired by Niklaus and interviewed thoroughly by Elijah and herself is in the nursery with Erik, reading to him from a heavy tome of fairy tales.

She was not to read him anything regarding bad wolves but otherwise, she was given free rein with the young prince.

Knowing exactly what the Original family was and showing surprisingly little judgement.

Of course, it didn't hurt that Niklaus hadn't a single idea of what babysitters usually earned and paid her two hundred dollars an hour.

Usually doubling her wage on the nights when the rest of the family were attending parties and Raina got to study while Erik slept, with a guest room right next door to the nursery.

She was going to be one of the small percentile of university graduates in America who left college without crushing debt.

The woman with the raven hair and bright blue eyes looks up as Katherine lingers on the threshold.

Raven hair, red lips, pale skin. She was Snow White personified but never once had she cast amorous eyes at anyone in the house or dressed to entice.

Which essentially is why, after a long day of watching babysitters in various states of decency and dubious qualifications size up Elijah and contemplate seduction as a means of making their way into the vast, glittering world of the New Orleans elite. Katherine had demanded that they hire Raina on the spot.

"Everything okay?" Raina asks, unthinkingly laying a hand on Erik's back, ready to shield him from any threat that might present itself in this mansion.

Katherine smiles, the woman is unflinchingly loyal and devoted to the child.

"For you and us yes, but you're going to need to stay with Erik all day and protect him. No-one is to come into the manor"

She nods, "If anyone asks where Klaus and Elijah are, I'll say their spending the day in the nursery…I could put something out on social media if you like"

Katherine blinks in confusion, "What?!"

"Facebook, twitter or Instagram" Raina suggests, "Something about 'Sitting down to watch Aladdin with Daddy, Uncle and Baby', one of Francesca's employees is friends with me on facebook so she'll at least think that Klaus and Elijah are here and I've made posts like that before so they won't see it as anything unusual"

A fellow schemer.

Katherine grins, "When this is over, I'm going to tell Klaus that you're being underpaid and deserve a raise"

* * *

Two hours later, in the early afternoon she receives a text.

Klaus has set up base in Richmond, summoning every last vampire in Virginia who knows who he is to his side so that if need be he can launch the worst offensive the South will have seen since the Union soldiers invaded.

Elijah is enroute to Mystic Falls and would be there in an hour, they hadn't been able to stop Caroline from going home.

The driver meeting her at the airport had warned her but she had simply gone to the car rental office, compelled herself into the fastest car they had on hand and broken every road rule to get back to her hometown as fast as humanly possible.

Elijah would gather up every last member of the Mystic Falls coven still alive- Katherine's heart stuttered at that- and get them to safety.

Kicking and screaming if need be but he had carte blanche to kill anyone who got in his way.

Katherine watched intently as Raina and Erik settled down in the sunroom for a Disney movie. She supposed she wouldn't get another opportunity like this.

"I'm headed to Bourbon St" she announced, "To check on some hunting contacts"

Raina nodded, "Cool, we're gonna watch a movie"

She gets a cheerful wave and a babble of happy nonsense from the baby as she throws on her leather jacket and checks her appearance in the mirror before walking out the front door.

* * *

Giacomo Farnese kept a bookstore and café on the corner of Dumaine and Decatur St, on the very edge of the French Quarter and close to Woldenberg Park overlooking Mississippi River which she loved to walk along several times a week.

The bookstore was a front for his supernatural information trading business but he still attracted quite a few regular customers.

Katerina was one of them, he housed the biggest collection of non-English books in the city, his shelves bursting with works from around the world, in their original languages from Chinua Achebe to Tamairangi.

He kept an entire shelf of Bulgarian literature next to a leather couch by the window where, if she so wished, Katerina could spend the afternoon curled up with a book.

She wishes she had that opportunity now, but she steps through the door, enjoying the jangle of the gold bell and sees that the shop has nearly been overrun with Tulane's International student body.

She rolls her eyes and moves around them, ignoring the momentary curiosity of the waitress as she looks for Giacomo.

"Katherine"

The forty year old, prematurely silver haired but still straight backed knight from Renaissance Italy emerges from behind the wooden counter. She smiles and holds out her hand for him to kiss and hold against his heart.

She wishes he loved her a little less so that it might not cause him so much emotional distress but never does he show her even the slightest disappointment.

He tucks her hand under his arm,

"How wonderful to see you today my dear, would you like me to close the shop? Send these ramen eating, op-shop trend setting philistines out onto the street"

She laughs and shakes her head, enjoying the appreciative glances of the men on her long, denim clad legs and the women on the five hundred dollar high heels.

"It's fine Jack" she tells him, "I'm only looking for a distraction, Elijah and Klaus are spending the afternoon watching cartoon characters sing songs and weave magic on a hundred inch screen with Erik"

"Bah" he waves his hand in distaste, "Children…all they do these days is watch television screens and play war games. In my day we had to use our imagination, we wanted to run outside and play"

She snorts, "In your day, in _my_ day, we thought bleeding a person excessively would cure a fever"

He shrugs, "Eh, so a little progress has been made for the better"

She sits down on her couch, the warm leather comfortable as she shrugs off her jacket and lets her mostly bare back rest against the plush seat.

Giacomo admires her exposed skin before clicking his fingers, "I have just received a new order" he tells her, stepping over to the shelf which is already near to overflowing with books, "Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov" he proudly holds up the shiny cover,

She frowns, she knows the book of course, she bought it from him several months ago. She opens his mouth but he sits down beside her on the couch, pressed up against her as he opens the book and begins reading to her.

He has a charming voice, somehow retaining his Italian accent from all those years ago. She places a hand on his and his green eyes meet hers,

"I was actually here…" she swallows and lowers her voice as much as possible, "I'm looking for someone new to the city, they're looking for me as well"

"Nadia" he interrupts her, lowering his eyes to the pages in front of him. To anyone else they would appear as two people reading together.

"She doesn't use a last name" he whispers, keeping his gaze on the book, "She has your hair and eyes, but she's taller and her gaze could cut through a man's heart at fifty paces"

Katherine feels light headed, "You've…_Giacomo_?"

He shrugs, "The entire town knows that I am in love with you my sweet lady, she sought me out for information, which had I not given willingly she probably would have tortured from me…feisty as her mother she is"

His tone is light and jesting but Katherine still feels chills run down her spine at the thought of Giacomo Farnese being threatened with torture or any sort of injury. This was a man of peace, even during his human life he'd been a humanist and a diplomat rather than a soldier. As a vampire, he'd refused to kill, preferring to feed from a dozen humans rather than drain one, he was courteous to all and because he refused to consider anyone his enemy no-one would think of acting like one to him. Even when Elijah had confronted him after his declaration of love to her, he'd been satisfied to only speak harshly to the man and at worst had menaced him with the idea of exile.

Her daughter was clearly determined to reach her and apparently didn't care who she hurt along the way.

Giacomo takes her hand and caresses her palm, "I am alright sweet lady"

She nods and swallows, "I don't suppose that my…Nadia…that she left you with contact details"

He grins, "But of course, I insisted on her number and told her that I would send her a text the very second you walked in her unaccompanied"

The doorbells jingle and Katherine is facing away but somehow, she knows.

She takes a stuttering breath but can't bring herself to turn around, as long as she continues staring out the window, with the glimpse of the wide river before her she can exist in this moment, this moment of infinite hope and fear.

Giacomo jerks his head and she can hear the sound of the heeled boots as her child slips through the door into the staff area, the stairs creaking as she climbs up into the private office.

Katherine is trembling and Giacomo smiles emphatically,

"It's alright" he takes her hands and leads her casually to the backyard, to the backstairs which provide a second entrance to the office.

"Go on now" he gives her a gentle push on her back and she sets foot on the first old and rotting step before turning back and giving him a grateful smile,

"Thank-you my friend"

He puts a hand to his heart and bows, "Of course"

The door to his office has been left slightly ajar and Katherine hovers outside it, trying to calm her frantic heart.

She can hear the footsteps and the creak of aged leather as the woman inside sits down and waits expectantly.

She wanted this.

She's _always_ wanted this.

Trying to capture her usual façade of a powerful woman without a concern in the world and failing spectacularly she pushes open the door and slips inside, her eyes immediately locking onto the only inhabitant in the room.

She glimpsed her when she was only a few seconds old, she caught a glimpse of red skin and dark hair.

She had often wondered what her child would look like.

Whether she would resemble her image or the features she should have had if there had never been a doppelganger curse. She had tried to merge her face and the face of her lover to see what the result would be.

Nadia is more beautiful than she could have imagined.

She is all sharp lines and angles but her eyes, she has her mother's eyes and hair, just like Giacomo said. She is staring at her now and Katerina smiles nervously,

"Hello Nadia" she whispers, "It's really nice to meet you"

A tear runs down her daughter's olive toned cheek and suddenly Katerina is tripping over her own feet so she can pull her child into her arms, she nearly falls and topples them onto the armchair but they keep themselves upright despite the ten inches of heels between them. They are giggling and weeping, overwhelmed with the situation but both determined not to let go of the other for a good long while.

* * *

Raina looks up from the television as she hears the footfall in the backyard. Reaching over she grabs the remote and pauses the movie, rousing Erik who had been staring intently at the screen,

"Come on sweetie" she stands up and helps him to the floor, "Break time"

He burbles and walks to the table where she'd already set up a juice box. He unwraps the straw clumsily and drops the plastic back on the table, he's drinking happily as she leads him to the backyard.

Cary Boyd is perched on the hot tub, studying his surrounds curiously,

"Must be nice to be able to compel yourself the best of everything" he remarks drily as Raina helps Erik across the marble patio,

"I wouldn't sit there if I were you" she warns, "The only time that's used is when Elijah and Katherine get bored of bathtub sex"

He shoots up and brushes down the back of his jeans before dropping into a crouch and smiling at Erik,

"Hey buddy" he speaks in the higher tone everyone always used around children, "How's it going?"

Erik releases a squeal of delight and runs across the marble into Cary's arms, clapping his hands on the man's face and babbling away.

Raina watches the scene intently, "You think he knows you?" she asks wonderingly, "Or maybe he just mistakes you for his father?"

Cary shakes his head, "Nah, I did some research, a kid at this age knows his parents faces, or well…parent"

Everyone knew that Erik was motherless, that Hayley Marshall had been murdered by Tyler Lockwood's pack as an act of vengeance against Klaus.

"I think he just recognises one of his own" he makes a funny face at the child who giggles and continues talking his two year old nonsense.

"Where is everyone?" he asks, "I mean, I know Rebekah is sleeping with that Crescent mutt in his trailer but where's everyone else?"

"Mystic Falls" she answers, "Apparently something big is going down there and they're the rescue brigade, well Elijah is, Klaus is Plan B in Richmond. Katherine's off somewhere scheming away"

He nods, "And his girlfriend?"

"Caroline?" Raina shrugs, "I haven't really met her she hasn't come by to see Erik yet but so far no evil stepmother vibes"

Cary sighs in relief, "Good, how about you? You're safe"

She grins, "Yeah, as far as I can be protecting our little hybrid heir. Klaus hasn't picked up on me yet"

He frowns, "He doesn't recognise his own?"

Raina shakes her head, "The white wolf might have been able to tell a werewolf and their clan from a scent alone but Klaus…I'm dormant so he can't pick up on my supernatural heritage"

"Okay" Cary hands Erik back to her, "I better make tracks, keep an eye on him though and guard him with your life because someone somewhere is cooking up something catastrophic and if they're gonna move against the royal family, they aren't gonna leave an heir alive to unleash hell when he comes of age"

Erik waves his pudgy hand as Cary hurries across the lawn and Raina sighs,

"I hope our pack beta is just over-reacting sweetie"

She feels a thrill of unease when the young boy shakes his head.

* * *

A/N- While the mother/daughter reunion in season 5 was sweet, it could have been more, there should have been more mother/daughter bonding.


	10. Caroline IV Bonnie II

A/N- Sorry for the day-late update. I had trouble writing this chapter. It was originally meant to be Bonnie all the way but I couldn't make that work.

So here we go.

My love always to my lovely fans and I hope TVD and TO Seasons premier is everything we hope it will be.

My Alpha Female readers will hopefully pick up on the reference I make in this chapter.

* * *

It was a good thing that Caroline didn't have any checked in baggage because she was first off the plane the second it hit the ground and before it was even cleared to disembark.

She stood on the tarmac and looked around frantically, seeing the airport in front of her and decided to race around the building as opposed to through it in the hope that she would draw less attention.

She didn't even know whether or not her actions would draw security out or whether she'd get caught on camera but she would worry about that later.

She rounded the corner and sighed with relief when she saw the drop off section of the airport, there was a young man waiting there with her name on a sign in front of an SUV.

"Hey!" she called out to him as she approached, realising only when he glanced down at her feet that she must have lost a shoe at some point,

"I'm Caroline Forbes"

"Oh thank _God_!" he breathes, "Both Mikaelson's have been calling me every ten minutes for the last hour"

He hands her a cellphone, "You need to get in touch with them immediately, I'm told my life depends on it"

Oh God.

Please don't let her mom be dead.

He must see how close she is to losing it because he opens the driver's side door and ushers her in to sit down while she tries to press the numbers on the phone, he takes it from her when she misdials a second time and hands it back to her when she hears Klaus' familiar voice distorted by technology,

"_Caroline! Caroline…speak to me, tell me you are alright!_"

She stares at the driver in disbelief, "I'm fine Klaus, but I don't have time for this! Jesus it was a two hour flight and I'm not the one in the hospital…"

_"It's a trap"_ he interrupts and she blinks in confusion,

"What?!"

_"I spoke to your mother, she was fine she hasn't been injured in any way but somehow communication with anyone from Mystic Falls has been disabled, we can't seem to contact any of your friends or even the hospital…"_

"So wait" she holds out a hand, palm up even as she realises that-of course- Klaus can't see her,

"My mom is okay but my _friends_ aren't?"

On the other end of the line, Klaus growls with frustration,

_"I don't know love but Elijah and I are headed to Virginia on the next flight, we will be there shortly and I want you to wait until we get there alright?"_

She runs a hand through her hair and wishes someone could just explain to her what's going on.

"_No I won't hang up this damn phone_" Klaus is arguing with someone, "_I don't care if it's airline procedure…oh go on try to arrest me I dare you…"_

_"Caroline"_ Elijah's voice is difficult to hear over the sound of a man screaming on the other end of the line and what sounds like metal crashing against metal,

_"We believe that you are being lured back to Mystic Falls and we wish for you to remain at the airport until we can arrive so as to ensure your safety. Niklaus will be staying in Richmond and providing back up support lest whoever it is that set the trap has a white oak stake and I shall go with you into the town to fetch your mother and friends, now assure me that you have heard and understood me"_

"Okay" Caroline says, "I understand you perfectly"

Somehow conversations with Elijah always had her and Elena modifying their speech until they sounded just like him, she wondered if they hung out long enough whether she would start drinking tea and hosting soirees.

She was probably in shock or her adrenaline was just running so high that now she was sitting still her brain was just going into overdrive and jumping about like a pinball machine.

Elijah hangs up just as the sound of an animal- probably Klaus- roars on his end and Caroline hands the phone back to the driver,

"Thank-you…" she trails off, realising that she didn't know his name,

"Rodney" he supplies, "Nice to meet you" he shakes her limp hand, "So…uh…what size shoe do you wear?"

"Huh?" She looks down at her bare feet with her bright red toenail polish, "Oh…um…thirty-six I think"

"Okay" he picks up her legs and tucks them into the car,

"I'm going to buy you some flip-flops or whatever's available and maybe some juice or something…unless you need blood?"

She shakes her head, "No…no the last thing I need right this second is an energy boost but…uh…thanks I guess?"

He shrugs, "No problem, I'll be back in five minutes" 

He locks the car and slips the security guard a fifty as he heads into the arrivals terminal.

Meanwhile Caroline is watching as a minivan pulls up in front of her and a family of five moves forward from the doors, dressed in floral print shirts with patches of red skin from where the sunscreen didn't reach or protect them.

The teenager already has his headphones on and the twins are proudly showing off their souvenirs to the elderly couple- probably their grandparents- who are picking them up and helping them load the suitcases into the trunk.

A tear slips down her face, she never had that, vacations in warm tropical locations and someone waiting to pick her family up afterwards.

Between her mom working and her dad going away for 'business trips' her holidays were spent with Elena at the Lake house.

Not that she minded at the time.

But now she tries to imagine herself at forty years old, with three sunburnt exhausted kids and a husband to wrangle out of the airport.

She is so relieved that her in-laws were able to pick them up but she's also tired and wants to go straight home so she can dump the bags, throw on something a little warmer and do the supermarket shopping because there's nothing in the fridge and she can't do one more restaurant dinner- 

She jumps as she realises that someone is knocking on the window of the car, thinking that it's Rodney she almost turns to open it on habit but realises quickly that it isn't him.

For one thing, she doubts anyone under Klaus' employ would be using the butt of the gun to gain her attention.

And he isn't knocking, he's trying to break the window.

She jumps to the passenger side and hits her head on the roof handle just as glass shatters everywhere, she hisses and her eyes go red with her fangs protruding as a gloved hand reaches inside the car, fumbles around and finds the lock.

The passenger door is yanked open and another hand tangles itself in her hair and pulls her bodily from the car.

She throws her hair back and when she doesn't come into contact with anything, spins around so quickly that she loses a chunk of hair but the bone of arm connected to the hand holding her snaps in several different places.

There is a shriek but her left foot was raised for a roundhouse kick and she only sees her attacker when they go flying across the road to hit and dent the taxi parked across from them.

Woman. Early thirties. Muscled. Dressed in fake army gear. Kevlar.

Out for the count.

Pain explodes in her back and she arches before dropping to the ground and rolling onto her stomach, under the car.

Whatever hit her didn't go through to her stomach so she reaches blindly behind her and feels the scratchy hard structural tissue known to all as wood.

She'd been staked.

Praying that the stake was whittled properly she yanks it out and feels a momentary sense of relief when her back heals and no splinters lodge themselves under her skin.

But she's not out of the woods yet.

Pun not intended- she's definitely in shock.

The attacker drops to the pavement with a crossbow aimed to fire under the car.

He'd been expecting her to hide under the car or perhaps to go forward to the now available space in front of them.

But Caroline Forbes likes to surprise people.

So she'd rolled back out to the passenger side and thrown herself over the car, landing on the man's back and aiming her foot for his spine.

She hears a definitive crack.

She has little medical knowledge, she might have studied microbiology but she'd decided to break the spine without knowing how high up she had to aim her foot to make him either a paraplegic or quadriplegic.

Still, she'd figured a broken spine was a broken spine, nobody could fight with one.

The man who'd broken the window moans and gurgles with pain and she flips him over onto his stomach.

He tries to glare at her but his eyes are flooded with tears from the pain,

"Who are you?!" she demands, "Why the _hell_ did you just attack me?"

He spits at her and she grabs him by the collar and smacks his head against the concrete, not hard enough to kill him but painfully enough to get her point across,

"Tell me why you attacked me!"

"Or what?" he sneers, choking on bile, "You'll kill me?"

She shakes her head and moves her jaw back and forth, trying to find a comfortable place for her fangs and the rest of her teeth,

"I won't kill you" she warns, "I'll turn you"

She holds her wrist to her mouth and bites down loudly, for show more than effectiveness.

Her blood drips down onto his face and he throws his head to the side quickly to avoid any of it landing in his mouth,

"I was hired!" he tells her, "We all were"

"We?" she snarls, "Who are you?"

"Hunters…vampire hunters" he adds as if it wasn't obvious, "We were told there was a hundred vampires in Mystic Falls and we'd get paid a thousand bucks for each kill. Two thousand for some of the more dangerous ones, like you!"

One _hundred_ vampires?!

There wasn't even one hundred vampires in _New Orleans_, let alone in Mystic Falls.

An official population of seven thousand- which was more like five thousand with the high mortality rate- and only one hospital and blood bank couldn't sustain fifty vampires without notice let alone one hundred.

And who would put a two thousand dollar bounty on her head?!

"Who sent you?" she demanded, "Give me their name"

But he had gone pale and blood was bubbling at his mouth,

"They told me I could become a Five hunter" he whispers dreamily before he falls unconscious.

Dropping him, she climbs to her feet, ignoring the sounds of sirens in the distance and the security guards who had now gathered to point their guns at her, shouting for her to 'Get on the Ground' whilst simultaneously ordering her to 'Don't move, put your hands in the air'

Klaus had been right. It had been a trap.

Someone had lured vampire hunters to Mystic Falls with the promise of thousands of dollars and the chance to become Five hunters, she figured at least one of those was a bald lie.

Did this mean they had only lured five vampire hunters or more?

Likely more.

Five men and women wouldn't stand a chance against four vampires and an actual Five hunter, not in a town they'd all grown up in and knew like the back of their hand, not a town where they'd all survived a lot worse than a paltry group of Buffy wannabes.

Which likely meant someone had placed the hunter equivalent of an ad on Craigslist and hoped they would all flock with the promise of money or supernatural power.

So Klaus had been wrong.

Her mother _was_ in danger.

They all were.

And she couldn't wait for him and Elijah to get there.

She hears a sizzle and holds out her hand, catching the strings of the taser.

They give her a shock but she throws them back and they land on the guard, causing him to drop to the ground and jerk violently.

She turns back to the car and sees that the tires had been slashed at some point, well, she wasn't driving that then.

With a sigh she holds up her hand,

"_Taxi_"

* * *

The Emergency Room of Mystic Falls General Hospital was in chaos.

Fortunately, several years of frequent pandemonium had taught the response team to consider this run-of-the-mill.

First thing they did was get the wounded out of the area, clearing it and notifying police as they moved the victims further into the hospital, activating bomb procedure and only noticing in passing that the shrapnel was all wood splinters.

Whoever had blown up the ER had done so with a bomb made with large fragments of wood.

But Mystic Falls always rolled out its own special brand of crazy.

"Alright people!" Meredith Fell takes control of the situation with her no nonsense tone and the clipboard that all in-control leaders seemed to magically acquire,

"I want the more serious patients on the left side of the ward, the less serious on the right. Security, I want you to disarm the bomber in the ambulance bay and do a sweep of the hospital. I want somebody to get me the Sherriff and the Mayor on the phone asap!"

"Phone lines are down" a paramedic tells her as he washes the stomach wound of a ten year old boy who'd come in with an over worried mother and the chicken pox. "We've already tried, internet, telephone, two cans connected with string- everything is down"

She stops and considers this, feeling the distinct disgusting sensation of fear.

This wasn't some crazy random who might have found out about vampires.

This was a co-ordinated attack.

And not one of the Founding Family members either. They would never have risked civilian casualties on such a large scale.

No.

They had _outsiders_ invading _their_ town.

"Right!" she turns to Dr Smallwood, the man was Founding Family and would know a supernatural attack if he saw one.

He'd also have no qualm about burying enough lead to build another Liberty Bell into anyone who tried a second attack on the hospital.

"I'm going to find the Mayor" she tells him, handing him the magical clipboard of leadership.

Stepping out of the hospital is like waking up from a nightmare.

The rest of Mystic Falls appears to be completely fine, instead of running for their lives or panicking, the citizens who heard about the commotion are gathered out the front of the building to rubberneck and some are in the parking lot to eagerly ask her for information as she brushes past them.

"I don't know" is all she offers them as she climbs into her car and revves the engine to let them know they only had seconds to get out of her way before they themselves needed medical attention.

The drive from the hospital to the town hall is barely five minutes. She parks right out front and hurries inside, exhaling with relief when she sees Mayor Hopkins standing in the centre of the main hall surrounded by several people.

She calls his name and starts striding towards him, wondering why he looks up at her with bewilderment,

"The hospital was attacked" she tells him breathlessly, "One dead, several more injured"

He nods and holds up a hand to silence the man beside him, Meredith glances at the man and wonders why the hell he looks like an extra from the Matrix.

"What about the vampires?" Hopkins asks her and she starts, turning her head to take in the crowd and not seeing a single one of them look surprised that the Mayor is asking about the existence of supernatural creatures like it was ordinary business,

"I…uh…I don't know" she recalls that she'd run into Stefan last week at the Grill,

"I'm…uh…pretty sure they're out of town on vacation"

He nods curtly, "So you don't know anything?"

Behind her a voice snarls, "Doesn't matter, she's with _them_"

A hand grabs her shoulder and she wants to turn around but something is drawn across her neck and something must have been spilt on her because suddenly the collar of her t-shirt is soaked.

She touches the collar and holds it away from her chest confusedly, someone spilt blood on her.

Oh.

Oh no.

That's her blood.

Someone slit her throat.

* * *

"Oh my God!"

Bonnie shrieks as the body of Meredith Fell hits the marble floor.

She had just come through the large oak doors and ignores everything in favour of rushing to the woman and turning her onto her back.

But the doctor is already dead. Her eyes still wide open in disbelief, her hand now slack on her throat from where she had tried to staunch the bleeding.

"Throw her in the back"

Bonnie is pushed to the side as two men grab the woman's arms and legs and carry her through the swinging side door.

She drops her gaze to where the body had been and sees a large pool of blood slowly spreading to stain her knees and her father's shoes,

"Bonnie, get up sweetie"

Shakily, Bonnie climbs to her feet, "Dad," she holds out her hands, "What the hell is going on?!"

Rudy Hopkins grabs her by the arm and begins steering her to the hallway,

"Bonnie," he says in a stern voice, "You need to go to my office and stay there, it's warded so the vampires can't get in"

She shakes her head. Why would she need to hide from the vampires? She knows the vampires.

She grew up with Elena and is friends with all of them.

Well, she _was_ friends with all of them but at the moment that isn't relevant,

"What the hell is happening?" she demands,

"First the hospital is attacked and now the main street looks like there's a Supernatural cosplaying convention happening out there! What is going on?"

He sighs and pushes her into the office, sitting her down on the couch with the sunken seats that hadn't been upgraded since Richard Lockwood had likely banged his mistresses on it.

"I'm dealing with the vampires Bonnie" he explains to her slowly as if she is a child,

"I've figured out a way to get rid of them"

She doesn't understand and shakes her head, "_What_ are you talking about?!"

"These vampires are a menace, they take what they want when they want. I've brought in your mother's relatives to spell the town so they can't leave and we're going to hunt every last one of them as a message to any vampire who thinks they can come into our town"

She stares at him in horror, "Are you _insane_? You can't! Damon Salvatore will kill anyone who comes after him"

Her father humphs with pride, "Unlikely, I've got a solid two dozen hard-core vampire hunters in the town with more on the way, even he couldn't fight every last one of them!"

She grabs his hands and grips them, trying to make him see reason,

"Call it off dad, if you don't Elena will call Caroline who will come running back with Klaus in tow"

"The reception towers are down, no-one can call out" he smiles patronisingly,

"Besides, we've already lured Caroline back here we called her pretending that Liz had been injured"

"Oh God" Bonnie thought she was going to be sick, "That's even worse, if Caroline comes back and Klaus can't contact her, or anyone else he'll definitely come for her and he might bring an entire army with him…or worse his siblings"

Rudy gets to his feet and pats her on the head, "It's okay Bon Bon, you just stay here and wait for me, your cousin Lucy is in the woods holding up the barrier but once all the vampires are dead she can come in and you two can have a sleepover or get drinks or something- won't that be nice!"

"_No!_" she shakes her head, "Dad, you have to listen to me, if the Originals come you'll die, everyone will die!"

He smirks, "Don't worry sweetheart, Daddy has a secret weapon"

He reaches into his jacket and draws out half a crudely carved white oak stake,

"Mr Mortensen grabbed some of the scrap wood from the old bridge to whittle his Christmas decorations" he explains nonchalantly as if he isn't holding one of the deadliest weapons in the supernatural world.

"Now wait for me here Bonnie" he orders as he steps out of the office and closes the door behind him, "I'll be back by nightfall"

She throws herself against the door and pulls on it with all her might but her father has already locked it and when she lifts up his paperweight to try and break the glass she realises that he's had it replaced with bullet-resistant panes.

She's trapped while her friends are out there being lured into a trap and will have to fight for their lives.

She's trapped and won't be on hand to try and stop Damon Salvatore when he begins massacring people left and right.

She's trapped and won't be able to warn Klaus not to enter the town because if he dies, all her friends are lost.

Oh God.

She didn't want this.

Not _this_.

This would ruin all her plans.

She runs her hands through her hair and begins weeping.

* * *

Rodney had left Caroline Forbes alone for ten minutes.

Ten _goddamn_ minutes.

He'd known she was a Mystic Falls vampire and dating Klaus but still, she should have been able to avoid trouble for _ten_ _minutes_.

The pick-up/drop-off section of the airport resembled a war zone.

The SUV was smashed and slashed probably beyond repair and there was two dead bodies lying on the footpath while security guards stormed around in cheap footwear and all shouted into their phones in a blind panic, having been trained to deal with emergencies but never having to have actually dealt with anything more serious than a drill.

_Christ_.

He'd have to deal with Klaus- Egomaniac- Mikaelson.

Or perhaps even worse Elijah- What do you mean everything isn't perfect?!- Mikaelson.

Bloody Hell.

"Bollocks" he swore under his breath and then closed his eyes to focus on burying his natural accent.

Figuring he needed to make himself scarce lest somebody see him and remember that this was his car, he feigns casualness as he strolls down the road, stopping at the first café he sees and leaning against the side of the building, out of sight from the main road but looking for all the world like a guy just making a call.

Which he definitely has to do.

But not to the vampires.

She picks up on the second call.

"_Why are you calling me?_" she demands, "_I totally told you we were over Blake!_"

Code.

It's not a good time for her.

Tough shit.

He's got a problem of fucking epic proportions on his hands.

"Something's going down in Mystic Falls" he tells her, hoping like hell she doesn't have him on speakerphone.

"Caroline Forbes was headed there after being told her mom was sick or something. Elijah hired me to pick her up from the airport but when I got here he called me saying that under no circumstances was I to take her to the town and to phone Klaus the minute I found her. Turns out there's some sort of trap being set for the vampires, she was attacked by two wannabe soldiers while my back was turned and now I have two bodies on my hands and two Original vampires headed my way to find her gone!"

"_Fucking Bonnie Bennett_" she cursed, "_The dumb bitch must have done something stupid…fuck…okay, I'll have to call the higher ups and report this_"

"Should I say something to the Mikaelsons?" he asks but she shouts him down,

"_Fuck no, do you want to be disembowelled?! Stay quiet, stay undercover until I tell you otherwise_"

He hangs up and takes a deep breath.

And now to call the Hybrid.

* * *

A/N- There we go.


	11. Damon I Elijah I

A/N- So, even Sheila Bennett screws Bonnie over. Think about it, she 'saved' her granddaughter by sending her to a bubble of existence where- had she not been holding on to Damon at the time- she would have been alone forever and likely gone insane.  
And how much do we want to bet that Alaric screws up somehow and Elena's happy memories of Damon won't come back until after several episodes, possibly an entire season of angst.  
Sorry about the delay in update.

* * *

At this stage in his unnatural life, Damon Salvatore had only served in one war.

That wasn't to say he hadn't been in warzones- after realising Lexi was nothing more than a control freak drunk on her own idea of herself- he'd followed his little brother to Egypt and quietly worked his way through the enemy soldiers, hoping to provide Stefan with an easier task of getting his wounded out alive.

But even though it had been over one hundred years since the Civil War, Damon still remembered the rules of combat that had been drilled into him.

Firstly, he had to find cover or concealment and set up a local secure base.

Which of course in Mystic Falls was easier said than done.

He should have known. That's what bugged him the most, he should have known he was walking into a trap but he'd been so focused on making sure Liz- one of the few people in this world he could call a friend- was okay that he'd ignored the warning lights he was sure would have been flashing through his brain.

He had known that Hopkins was working against him. He had figured out there was an attack plan in the works but he had never thought that the first shot would be in an area as crowded with humans as the hospital.

Hopkins always waxed poetic about the rights of the humans in Mystic Falls- what the _hell_ was he doing putting them in danger?

Never mind. He couldn't think about that now, not with Stefan and Elena following him down the street, completely exposed as he carried a dazed and bruised Liz on his shoulder.

Get to a secure location.

The Boarding House was out. If Hopkins had lured them to the hospital, likely he had hunters waiting for them at their house.

Rick's apartment was no good either, close quarters were good in hand-to-hand combat but another grenade or a bomb and they'd be stuck five floors up with limited escape options.

Ditto the caves, a couple of vervein smoke bombs and the entire network would be lethal.

The Grill would probably be one of the first places they'd check…

The high school. He knew the layout, he knew where they could hide without drawing too much attention and if Hopkins sent armed men in to draw them out, someone would see the weapon, scream holy murder and before anyone could blink there'd be federal police, hostage negotiators and every local media station gathered around the perimeter watching their every move.

It was still school holidays but there would have to be some sort of program happening that required student attendance.

Even Hopkins wasn't stupid enough to risk a life sentence in prison just to try and make Mystic Falls vampire free.

But first, he'd have to get Liz walking under her own strength.

He leads them to the local park, they're exposed but with a clear line of sight, they'll be able to see any attacks coming.

"Okay, here we go"

Damon lowers Liz down onto the sidewalk as Stefan crouches down and begins checking out her injuries. Seeing that she's taken care of for the moment, he turns to Elena and notices that her fangs are still out and her eyes are red with blood and lined with veins,

"Hey" he cups her chin and gives her a gentle shake, "Come on Batman take off the mask"

She frowns but swallows and closes her eyes, taking two deep breaths before reverting back to her human features,

"Damon" Elena's voice is shaky with fright, "What the hell was that?"

Well, going on the fact that he'd just had to yank a rather large overgrown vervein soaked splinter from his forehead, he's gonna go with vampire hunter as his final answer.

Question is- what the fuck is a hunter doing committing murder in broad daylight…and with freaking humans outnumbering the vampires in the immediate vicinity ten-to-one?

He blinks at Liz as his head clears from the penetrating injury,

"Hey, what were you doing at the hospital anyway?"

She doesn't immediately answer, she chooses to push Stefan out of the way and throw up in the gutter instead, wiping her mouth afterwards and giving herself a shakedown, pulling herself together in less time than it takes other people to fall apart.

Damon's always been a fan of Liz and her no-bullshit attitude, but she was thrown around in a bomb blast and will have to be handling everything that's currently hitting the fan so he takes a bite out of his wrist and offers it to her,

"Just don't die today and you'll be fine" he offers as assurance,

She glares at him, "I'd rather go back to the hospital"

"You went to the hospital, it got _blown up_ remember" he flickers his eyes at her and Elena steps around him,

"Liz, Klaus was the person who called us saying you were in the hospital…that means Caroline was called as well and probably headed straight here from New Orleans. We have to get out of town and intercept her and we can't do that if we're carrying wounded"

Damn.

What does it say about the last few years that Elena can now strategize and plan ahead with the same thought process as a ground soldier?

Nothing good.

Although useful in this situation. He hadn't even considered retreat but now that he thought about it, get everyone the hell out of dodge to a safe area, come back and scope out the enemy before eating every last one of them.

He takes another bite of his wrist as the first wound heals over, "Come on" he urges,

"Sooner we get this done, sooner we can find Caroline"

Those were the magic words, the promise to a mother that she would see her child.

Liz takes his wrist in her hand and drinks the barest sip, making a disgusted face as she pulls away,

"Okay" she wipes her mouth and swallows, "We need a car"

The Camaro was still at the hospital, the tyres had been slashed so they'd been forced to abandon it, besides even if he wanted to the car was far too recognisable for them to drive around town.

Still, the thought of abandoning the vehicle he'd spent so many years in- the car that had been his home when he'd lived life moving restlessly from place to place, waiting endlessly for the comet that would release Katherine from the tomb- hurt.

But he had Stefan and Elena to worry about.

His eyes swept the surrounding area before landing on an old jeep, it had clearly seen better days but if it could make the two hour drive to Richmond or hell just get them out of town it'd do.

He hoped Liz knew something about hotwiring cars, the only experience he had with auto theft was compelling people to give him the keys or beating Jeremy at the video game.

Jeremy.

_Shit_.

"Call your brother" he tells Elena, "_Now_,"

Her eyes go wide with horror and she's ripping her phone out of her back pocket, pressing number two on the screen and tapping her foot with supernatural speed.

Damon waits with the barest sliver of patience, hoping that since it's barely nine am Jeremy and Matt will still be at the Lake House sleeping off their hangovers and will stay put until he can collect them.

Unless Hopkins plans to take them captive?

No. They're both human, besides if someone pointed a weapon at little Gilbert his Five hunter training would kick in and bodies would be dropping left, right and centre.

And Elena would be horrified but Damon has no problem with Jeremy joining in the fight if the odds are stacked in his favour.

"What's taking so long?" he demands as Elena hangs up and redials,

"The call isn't going through" she complains and he runs a hand through his hair in frustration before Liz offers to try on her phone.

But a minute later she's cursing, "The lines are down" she explains,

"And today of all days I don't think something died on the wires"

"They're jamming us" he surmises.

_Damn_.

So, Hopkins had somehow tricked Caroline into thinking her mother was injured, which would bring her running from New Orleans and he'd either been betting on the group's love for one another or their concern for Liz to draw them back into town and to the hospital where a hunter had been waiting for them.

Liz had likely just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, Damon knew she liked to swing past the ER during her shift to ensure that nothing was going down but he'd been there for the tail end of her conversation to Klaus, so he would know something was wrong.

Hopefully he'd be hot on Caroline's tail and keep her somewhere safe for them.

But with their luck, it was more likely that blondie was gunning it to town and would be another vampire running around clueless on the day that Hopkins had declared it was hunting season.

Okay.

One problem at a time.

Turns out Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes did know how to hotwire a car.

"If you ever tell anyone I will kill you" she mutters under her breath as they approach the jeep, keeping an eye out for potential dangers,

"But I had a juvie record longer than my…"

The second explosion was less deadly than the first.

At least this time there was no casualties, they had simply been knocked to the ground, stunned as their brains tried to reorient themselves and they tried to get air back into their lungs.

Elena and Stefan had been a few feet behind Damon and Liz so they were less winded and when the bullets started flying, Stefan was first up and throwing himself at the attacker, catching a bullet to the chest but tackling the woman to the ground.

Damon was just getting to his feet as he heard the tell-tale sound of an arm being ripped from its socket.

_Crap_.

He was worried Stefan had relapsed but he staggered over to see Stefan wasn't feeding, he was just making a mess of his kill.

His brother pulls himself back and crouches by the body,

"If these bastards are going to hunt us in broad daylight" he growls ominously,

"Let them hunt all of us at our worst and know that we're throwing out the rulebook as well"

Fine.

Let the Ripper of Monterrey tear through whoever was after them.

The South wasn't lacking in underground basements for him to throw his little brother in to detox him later.

And if by chance they ended up in the North…well he was sure there was a storm cellar or two there as well.

So the jeep had been rigged to blow, knowing that they'd be looking for a large car to carry them to safety, that meant Hopkins didn't want them leaving town.

Unfortunately for the Murderous Mayor, Mystic Falls was surrounded on all sides by deep forest, and even he couldn't have stationed hunters in every corner of it, it would be tough going for Liz but they could hike over the town line and once they were on the highway, steal a car or call a cab or hopefully make contact Caroline or Klaus and be in Richmond by nightfall.

Failing that, Damon would find Bonnie, take her hostage and demand that every vampire in town be allowed to leave peacefully.

Back in 1863 he'd been able to get all his men out alive, on no small part due to the deals he'd made with the Devil but he no longer had the same tools at his disposal.

Still, he'd managed a lot more on a lot less.

First things first.

"Right" he sighed, clapping his hands "Time for school everyone"

* * *

"I would much prefer you simply give me the information I require" Elijah politely requested as he stood in the middle of the road leading to Mystic Falls, surrounded by corpses and dangling the vampire hunter by the throat.

After the catastrophe that was Virginia airport, what with the attack on Caroline in the parking area and then security classifying the situation as an act of domestic terrorism, the planes had all been rerouted.

Well, _almost_ all the planes.

Niklaus had been very determined to land in Virginia and thankfully the pilots had not been on vervein, however they were now very likely fired for breaking several laws in landing on the tarmac in clear violation of instructions.

After the debrief from Rodney, it had been very, very difficult to convince his little brother not to follow Caroline to Mystic Falls.

In the end Elijah had taken Niklaus' face in his hands, sworn he would find and extract the entire coven and then snapped his brother's neck, thrown his body in an empty dumpster, jammed it closed and told Rodney to book a hotel suite for when the King of New Orleans managed to work his way out of the metal contraption.

A quick text to Katerina, asking her to locate and hide the silver daggers and white oak ash and Elijah had been in a rental car headed straight to Mystic Falls.

He had been approaching the outskirts of town when a line of tyre spikes had been thrown across the road and his car had come to a rather sudden, unpleasant stop.

From there, a weapon he would later learn was a grenade launcher had been fired at him.

Elijah _abhorred_ modern weaponry, as did many vampires who had existed before the twentieth century.

He believed there was more honour in a sword fight, when both parties were more or less equal, he'd considered canons gauche and unnecessary and guns…

There was no honour in firing a gun, in killing a man without having to look him in the eye.

And nuclear weaponry.

Elijah was often known as the chivalrous Original, the brother who lived in suits and turned his face from the gauche advances of modern technology, but that was because it broke his heart to watch the world run screaming into the abyss as it tore itself to shreds.

So it was with aversion that he picked off the toy soldiers or as he was sure they would call themselves- vampire hunters- leaving only one survivor.

This one appeared to be the leader.

Although how natural selection had failed to kick in and let this one reach maturity was beyond him.

Being a fan of a televised serial did not give one license to hunt the supernatural in his opinion.

"You are a vampire hunter" Elijah mused to the man's rapidly reddening face and flailing legs,

"That is quite obvious from your pathetic attempt to kill me…you aren't a very good hunter, as proven by the fact that you attacked me without first determining that I am indeed a vampire"

He gives the man a shake and loosens his grip just enough to let him breathe,

"Now, before I go into Mystic Falls and start killing everyone who aims a crossbow at me, I would like to know the exact figures so that I might estimate how long this shall take…I have a fiancée at home you see and if I am not back by nightfall I am worried that she shall be frightened, or worse, angry enough to use my bank account for her shoe addiction"

"Twe…" the man coughed and spluttered, spittle flying and Elijah turned his face in disgust,

"Twenty-something"

He drops him to the ground and uses his handkerchief to wipe his face,

"Twenty?" he murmurs in disbelief, "Twenty hunters for _four_ _vampires_?"

The man is gasping for breath and tries to drag himself away, "For _one hundred_ vampires!"

Elijah scoffs, "One hundred vampires in a small country town two hours from Richmond?! The entire state of Virginia would barely be pushing thirty vampires"

The hunter stood up and flung holy water in his face, chanting rapidly in Latin as Elijah sighed and checked his watch,

"Well, I have to assume you were found over the internet by someone who is as much an idiot as yourself"

He snapped his neck and stepped over his body, striding down the road into town, it was a deceptively warm day and had he not been supernatural speed he might have been enjoying the wondrous scenery.

As it was he was so concerned with finding Caroline and her extended family that he only just sensed the person before the spell hit him.

Brain boiling pain.

He falls to his knees, clutching his temple as the witch burned him with bursting aneurysms and although it wasn't the first time he'd been attacked in this manner, or sadly even the thirtieth it still hurt every time.

And just as suddenly, the pain was gone and his brain was able to heal, slowly the tissue came back together and he was no longer blinded. Gathering his strength, he rose to his feet and faced down the young witch in front of him,

"Once upon a time" he began lightly, "Humanity greeted one another with formal introductions, not weaponry and attacks…Hello" he held out a hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you"

The woman snorted indelicately and crossed her arms, not that he was surprised or in any way fazed by her actions,

"Very well" he fiddled with his watch, "Then perhaps you'd care to tell me why it is you don't want me entering Mystic Falls proper today?"

"We've been expecting _you_" she sneers, "Hybrid Klaus running to the vampires rescue!"

He had been correct then, Klaus had been the target and poor Caroline and her beloved friends had been the bait, a way to lure the Original back to Mystic Falls and kill an entire line of vampires.

He doesn't let the horror of this attempted genocide show on his face.

He's unflappable, he's spent a thousand years seeing those he loved at their best and their very worst.

Just because this worthless witch doesn't understand the enormity of her actions, it doesn't make her a monster, just a little fool.

"Ah…" he grins ruefully, "I'm afraid you're mistaken, I'm Elijah Mikaelson, the eldest Original not my dear little brother I'm afraid"

He raises his voice so that the witches in the forest, the ones who are trying to hide from him can hear his words. The woman in front of him is about to contradict him, possibly with another round of torture but he watches patiently as she takes him in for the first time.

He was distinguishable by the suits which he wore every day. Niklaus preferred the more casual clothes available to them all, his daylight ring also was a signature piece of jewellery- once again something his brother did not wear.

"Now that we've cleared that up" he opens his arms to address them, "I'm searching for a beautiful blonde woman…although I must ask that you do not tell Katherine Pierce that I referred to this vampiress as beautiful, my fiancée is rather the jealous type"

This was not information pertinent to the conversation but he did enjoy being able to call Katerina his fiancée.

"Blonde hair, blue eyes, black pants and a green top" he continued, "Caroline Forbes" Elijah let her name sink in, "You should know of her by now, several months ago my brother offered immunity to witches around the world for the assistance they gave her in destroying Silas once and for all. She might not be your personal ally but she is not your enemy"

"She's a _vampire_!" the woman interrupted, "Impure and monstrous, she _deserves_ to die"

"Lucy" a voice hissed and Elijah delayed his response as the rest of the witch coven emerged from the trees, his eyes darting about for a familiar face before settling on one who was not a witch.

At least not anymore.

"Ms Bennett?" he questioned bewildered, "Forgive me" he added when he saw the startled look on her face, "The resemblance between your daughter and yourself is quite telling…but I do not understand why you are here, Caroline's actions are what brought Bonnie back from the Other Side"

"You mean the deal she made with Silas" she seethed, "Thanks to her, Silas died and was released from his torment, Qetsiyah's work of thousands of years undone by a nineteen year old brat"

"A brat who traded Silas' life for your daughters and considered it quite the bargain" he countered before deciding that he was getting nowhere,

"Your opinion of vampires is noted but as I do not feel like discussing ideology today, perhaps you would be so kind as to let me pass? If you wish to kill my brother then by all means he is staying at a hotel in Richmond, shall I give you his number so that you may call him?"

The witches were quite put out by Elijah's presence in place of his brother's, they had clearly been banking on Klaus to come roaring into town, distracted and vulnerable.

But clearly they decided that they would make do for Elijah was driven to his knees again by the crippling pain and though he threw himself at Lucy and rendered her unconscious, the pain did not relent for all the witches were chanting now.

They undid the spell on his daylight ring and his flesh began to burn, instinctively he sought shelter in the trees, throwing himself into the forest, away from the witches and under the cool cover of old canopies.

Right into the trap that had been meant for Niklaus.

Still in pain, still disorientated he was unprepared for the six hunters who assaulted him, he could only kill three of them before his shirt was ripped open and the weapon driven into his body.

The white oak stake penetrated Elijah's chest.

Nine hundred miles away, Katerina screamed.

* * *

Caroline held her shoes in her hand and her pants hitched up to her thighs as she carefully made her way upstream.

Being the daughter of a policewoman, having spent long afternoons as a child in the police station while her mother's deputies had explained basic rules of finding criminals or hiding from the law to keep her interested had given her a knowledge base to build on. So she had guessed that if people were hunting her, there'd likely be roadblocks on all the routes out of town.

But what they wouldn't be expecting would be for her to walk in.

Granted they'd likely have hunters stationed around looking for a blonde girl and they might have even got a photo of her outfit. So that was why she'd ditched her car on the side of the road and decided not to leave any tracks by walking in the shallows of the river that led right to the Quarry.

From there she knew one of the closest houses belonged to Ms Woods who lived in velour tracksuit and always did her washing on Wednesday nights and had to hang her outfits outside on a washing line because she sprayed so much perfume into them that she had to air them out. So if Caroline was lucky- and so far she wasn't dead yet- there should be a tracksuit for her to 'borrow' and change into and then perhaps she could get around town in disguise as a jogger.

She could find her mom, find her friends and figure out what the hell was going on.

But first things first…

"Yes!" she gasped as she saw the familiar black tracksuit with gold threading hanging in the backyard of statues and a hot tub that Alaric Saltzman had once apparently spent four hours in.

Before he and Jenna started dating of course.

Caroline shuddered but eased closer to the fence, keeping an eye and ear out for anyone around her. She could hear a soap opera playing on the television inside the house so she flashed over the fence, grabbed the tracksuit as quickly as she could, her fingers fumbling on the pegs but yanking the clothing down with little trouble. She's back over the fence and hoping Mark Branson, a junior who lives two doors down isn't watching as she ditches her clothes and slithers into the black and gold tacky outfit.

And it even came with a hood.

Wow, her day was getting better and better.

With the hood up to try and cover her blonde hair she began a brisk walk down the street, trying to look like, at best a young girl trying to keep fit and at worst what passed for a criminal in Mystic Falls.

It was such a beautiful, sunny day- even with everything going to hell around her Caroline could see and appreciate the lovely weather but then again Mystic Falls was her home, she had always worked hard to contribute to the town and its surroundings, to make it a better place for everyone.

She wished Klaus was with her.

The thought came so suddenly in her head that she somehow managed to trip for the first time since becoming a vampire.

But it was totally true, she wanted Klaus with her, if he was here he would be confident and calm, marching around and ordering the hunters from 'his' town before confronting whoever had been willing to fork out thousands of dollars for their murder.

She stops at a pedestrian crossing and considers this as her brain finally starts connecting the dots,

No one person in Mystic Falls had thousands of dollars just lying around earmarked for vampire hunting.

For years, the richest families in town had been the Lockwood's and the Salvatore's.

Damon and Stefan clearly weren't behind the attack and surely if Tyler was going to crawl out of the woodwork after so long he'd have sent the hunters to New Orleans?

Individual citizens in her town didn't have those kind of finances but an organisation…

Such as the local government, headed by Rudy Hopkins, the man who had once thrown vervein in the water supply.

Caroline hesitates and looks around her.

She is at the edge of the town centre, she had been hoping to cut through and make it to the police station where her mom would be, or at least deputies who had known her since she was a baby and would help her.

Except she didn't need protection.

She needed to stop whoever was trying to destroy her town.

She takes a deep breath and sets her path for the town hall.


	12. Klaus I Caroline V

A/N- Okay, so a quick explanation as to why I am the most horrible person in the world. Disappearing for nearly a month and now only posting a short chapter.  
In a word- Uni. In a sentence- Fucking uni has drained me completely.

So with my muse on vacation, I have to take a break for two days (now that all my essays are finished) and drabble away with some of my future works before  
I can regain my momentum and give these stories the dedication they deserve, otherwise they'll suffer.

Thank-you for your patience.

P.S- What's with all the sudden jumps in favouritings and followings again? Have I been mentioned in another media article? If so, someone please tell me in the reviews because that's how I found about the one in the Klaroline magazine.

Anyway- here we go.

* * *

Klaus.

The Feared Vampire.

The Original Hybrid.

King of New Orleans.

Was sitting on the floor, his back against the couch staring blankly at the wall as the pain continued to sear through his heart.

He remembered this agony, he'd felt it when Finn had died, when he and his siblings had just freshly been connected to one another through one of Esther's evil spells.

And even though the magic had been undone, the pain had lanced through his heart as Kol had burned and now…

It wasn't as much the searing white-hot anguish as it was the sudden absence.

The hole that Elijah's death would leave in his life.

Elijah hadn't only been his brother, he had been the closest thing Niklaus had ever known to a loving father.

It had been Elijah's face he'd seen when he'd first opened his eyes.

Elijah's leather wristbands that had suffered when he'd begun teething.

Elijah's fingers that had held his hands when he'd been learning to walk.

Elijah had taught him to hunt, to survive in the wilderness and then been by his side- unendingly for nearly a thousand years. Sometimes hating him, sometimes fighting him but he had never stopped loving him.

Niklaus had known that and now…

Someone crouches down in front of him and holds out a cell phone, "It's Ms Pierce calling, sir"

Ms Pierce.

_Katherine_.

The one permanent thing in his life.

Someone had joked once that at the end of everything, when all civilisations had fallen and humanity was dead and destroyed, it would be Klaus and Katherine, emerging from their nuclear bomb shelters to raise armies of vampire cockroaches against one another. He'd laughed when he'd heard that but he had found such comfort in the thought, after centuries of seeing everything fade into dust in its own time, the idea that at the very end he wouldn't be _alone_.

"Katerina" he murmurs her name now, her true name, because after everything perhaps only he knows who she really is.

"_Klaus_" she can barely say his, choking on her tears and struggling for air, he wonders how she knows before discarding the thought, she has always known everything.

"_I_…" she breaks off and emits a strangled laugh, "_I guess I should say I'm sorry for our loss or something just as useless_"

"The Lord works in mysterious ways?" he suggests sarcastically and she laughs again,

"_He has a plan for us all?_" she counters and that statement has him thinking.

Niklaus had never put much store in the gods, the ones of Mikael, his biological father or even the God whom Rodrigo Borgia had converted him to.

But if there was a deity somewhere, with the power to give or take life…

It had just incurred the wrath of Niklaus Mikaelson and Katerina Petrova.

It had made a grievous error and would suffer dearly for it.

"You will stay in New Orleans" he orders, "I need you to watch over Erik and the Quarter"

And to reassure everyone because when word got out that Elijah, his wise Councillor was…

There would be full on panic, enemies would be arming themselves and allies would be crouching in shadows terrified.

After all, Niklaus was the blood-soaked monstrous King and Elijah was…_had_ been his voice of reason.

Katerina would have to fill that role now.

"_Bring back his body for burial_" she begs, "_Along with the heart of his killer_"

He smirks humourlessly, "Oh don't worry sweetheart, by the time I'm done you and I will be bathing in their blood"

He ends the call and faces down his servant, "Get me a car" he snarls, "I'm going hunting"

* * *

Caroline felt bad.

She felt guilty.

But she supposed if her plan was successful Elena would forgive her.

Besides, the place had already been burnt out.

But _still_…

She winced as the crowbar brought down more plaster, crumbling to the floor as she hurled the long blue tool at the basement wall of Dr Gilbert's long abandoned medical practice.

Which adjoined the town hall, separated only by a wall that she had steadily destroyed in less than ten minutes.

Sneaking in to Dr Gilbert's office had been easy, she, Elena and Bonnie had used to sneak in there every Easter to hide eggs everywhere and she knew the back parking lot and the basement of the town hall…

She'd snuck down there when she was ten years old, convinced there was something hidden down there.

She'd found out at seventeen that it was a dungeon where she would be tortured for days.

By her own father.

These hunters want to come into her town and hunt her and her friends?

Bring it, she's survived worse, they've _all_ survived worse.

She has to climb through the hole and winces when her hair becomes stuck on the concrete side of the town hall wall.

She pulls herself free and lands with a soft thump, pausing momentarily in the fear that someone has heard her.

That someone is down here with her.

She holds her breath and waits, when she does not detect any signs of life she sighs with relief and moves forward, inching up the metal staircase until she can hear what is happening above her.

Caroline hasn't learnt how to count the number of people in a room by their footfalls alone but she can distinguish voices.

There are at least ten people that are talking and two people arguing when she hears the word 'basement' and flashes back into the darkest corner, pressing herself into the wall as hard as she can and holding her breath.

As it turns out she needn't have bothered, the door to the basement was opened and two heavy objects were thrown down the stairs.

Caroline's breath catches in her throat and she squeezes her eyes shut because she might not know how to count people by their footfalls but she knows all too well the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

She waits until the door shuts again and inches forward, breathing as silently as possible.

Because the stairs wound in a tight spiral, the bodies are twisted on the rusted metal, hanging upside down with their heads facing the floor.

But she still recognises the woman in her hospital scrubs.

Meredith Fell.

And the man in the bespoke suit.

Oh God.

"_Elijah!_"

Caroline tries to climb the stairs around Meredith's body but her arms are splayed out and blocking her path so with a moan of 'Ew', she slips her hands under the doctor's armpits and lifts her up, carrying her down and laying her on the concrete.

She kneels on the stair by his head and awkwardly turns his body over onto his back.

His face has gone grey and the veins are protruding from his skin, the white oak stake is jammed into his chest and Caroline feels her eyes grow wet with grief.

Elijah had always existed in the periphery of her world, she'd known him as the vampire Elena trusted, the honourable Original.

But when she'd begun her relationship with Klaus, she had started to see Elijah as the elder brother.

The man who was so prim and proper in public but would walk into his brother's room whenever he felt like it, even if said brother was naked or in bed with someone else.

The man who always used perfect grammar but cheated at Monopoly.

The man who had welcomed her to New Orleans with astounding politeness and then shown her a pamphlet for male chastity belts.

He had a surprising sense of humour and was so kind to her, never judging her, thinking her stupid or looking down on her…

She reached up and tried to fix his tie before wrapping her hands around the stake and pulling on it as hard as she could.

The white oak weapon came free with a sickening slurp and she lost her balance, tumbling down the stairs and landing on her arse.

She hisses and swallows her curse, waiting breathlessly to see if anyone upstairs hears her and comes thundering down the stairs, armed to the teeth.

No-one comes down the stairs but someone goes up.

* * *

Elijah sits up with a strangled gasp and looks around curiously, observing his surroundings before he hears her whisper his name,

"Caroline?"

With an impossible grace, he spins on the stair and pulls himself to his feet, descending to the ground and offering her a hand to lift her up, but for all his controlled movements he's clearly still confused. "Where are we?" he asks quietly, "And whom is holding us here?"

"Okay" Caroline drew him back away from the stairs, "First things first"

She pulls him into her arms and grips him as tightly as she can, "I am so, _so_ glad you're _not_ dead!"

He smiles, "Thank-you"

She nods, "Next thing, we're in the basement under the town hall which I'm pretty sure is filled with vampire hunters who are trying to take out every supernatural in town…so…"

She trails off, Elijah's eyes have gone red and he's smiling, he takes her wrist with gentle fingers and cradles it, taking her fingers and wrapping them tighter around the white oak stake.

"Watch over this for me" he requests before flashing up the stairs,

"Elijah!" Caroline shrieks as the first body falls to the floor with a blood-curdling scream.

Shots are fired but they're blocked out by the sound of already dead hunters hitting the wall and ceiling as Elijah's fancy takes him.

She bursts onto the first floor and nearly collides with a man's head while Elijah is regaining his normal skin tone by draining a hunter dressed in army gear dry and somehow managing to look elegant as he does so.

Blood is splattered all over the floor and the walls and Caroline takes a few deeps breaths to ignore the delicious scent.

She is not hungry, she is not hungry, she is _not_…

"_Who's there?!_"

The shouting comes from down the hall and Elijah follows at her heels as she races to the office,

"Bonnie?!"

The door is locked but she manages to kick it open and when she sees her friend standing in the centre of the small room she tries to throw herself into her arms…but an invisible barrier stands between the two of them.

"Bonnie?" Caroline holds out her hand, "How come I can't reach you?"

"The Mayor must have made this office private property" Elijah notes, running his hand along the wooden panelling,

"Caroline, we don't have time for this we need to find our friends and leave"

She ignores him, Bonnie is standing there staring at her as if she's a complete stranger.

"Where's Klaus?" she asks dully and Caroline blinks in confusion, "What? Klaus isn't _here_ Bonnie, he's in Richmond waiting for us…come on, we have to go!"

Bonnie's staring down at the white oak stake in her hand,

"You can't leave" she murmurs, "My father had my mother's family come in and ward the town, nothing supernatural can leave it"

Caroline flounders and turns to Elijah who nods quietly, "I encountered the witches on my way into Mystic Falls they're the ones who staked me"

Oh God.

"How do we undo the spell?" she asks her friend desperately,

"There must be something? Some sort of counter-spell or salt or…I don't know but Bonnie there has to be some way!"

"When will Klaus get here?" Bonnie asks, apparently ignoring everything that Caroline is saying,

"He won't" Elijah answers coldly, understanding the situation better than she does at that moment

"He's staying in Richmond amassing a vampire army to send to Mystic Falls if I am not back by midnight tonight"

His hand flickers to the watch on his wrist and Caroline figures that sentence is half-lie, half-truth.

She suddenly has an idea, "Bonnie, call your dad. Tell him this, he's a smart man, he'll know that however many hunters he has they can't possibly stand up to whatever Klaus throws at them. He'll have to drop whatever the hell he's doing"

"He wants you gone" she crosses her arms and leans against her father's desk,

"He wants Mystic Falls to be free of vampires, so he hired hunters and brought them to town, he lured you here as bait so that Klaus would follow and his entire line could be wiped out with his death"

Caroline felt light-headed, she'd known that Hopkins had hated vampires but she'd always assumed that he would eventually come around and accept their existence in their hometown.

Like her mother had, like Carol Lockwood had, like Alaric Saltzman had.

These people who'd had way more reason to hate vampires but had learned to live with them.

But now he wanted to kill them all? To kill Klaus and in doing so kill Bonnie's friends and family?

"Bonnie…look just get your dad to call them off and we'll all leave, we'll pack our stuff and go anywhere! Just _please_, let us leave alive"

"And where would you go Caroline?!" she demands,

"Back to New Orleans with Klaus and his sick, twisted family? And Elena? Would she and her boyfriend's go with you? And what about Jeremy and Matt? If you go into exile they'll have to go with you"

"And if we die what do you think will happen to them then?!" Caroline cries,

"Bonnie, if Elena dies today, Jeremy will get himself _killed_ trying to avenge her death and Matt would die before he ever let that happen and that will be on _you_!"

"Oh so this is _my_ fault?!" Bonnie stands up and stomps her foot,

"I'm not omniscient Caroline, I can't stop every bad thing that comes to town I can only do my best to help"

"Then _help_ her now" Elijah interrupts,

"Call your father and attempt to reason with him, I've already slaughtered the hunters in the grand foyer, as long as Caroline holds the white oak stake I cannot be killed and I am sure that the Salvatore brothers will feel no qualms about killing anyone who gets between their loved ones and safety"

She simply sneers at him, "Elena was wrong, you're just as much a monster as your brother and you…" she turns to Caroline,

"You didn't even blink when he threatened to kill human beings so maybe you're right and I should have done more to help but I don't think I should have made you that daylight ring…maybe I should have tried harder to discourage Elena from transitioning…maybe I've just been holding on to the memory of who you and Elena once were, not the monsters you are now"

Caroline steps back and shakes her head, trying to dislodge the cruel words before they sank into her memory,

"We have to go" Elijah whispers in her ear, "I hear someone coming"

Whether or not this was true or he was simply giving her an exit strategy before her heart broke any further Caroline would never know, because she would never have the courage to talk about this moment with anyone.

She turns to leave before looking back over her shoulder,

"Remember Bonnie, please remember…when all this is said and done, that I loved you once as my own sister and I would have died for you. I still love you…will always love you and I understand you but I will never forgive you and I will do whatever it takes to keep my family safe"

* * *

"Alright" Elijah links his arm through hers and leads her from the town hall down into the alleyway behind the large building,

"Firstly, do you have any idea where your friends might be?"

Caroline takes a deep breath and runs her hands through her hair, "Um…I don't know, let me think…they won't be able to go home or to any of their regular haunts- which for Damon is essentially the Grill…um Damon and Stefan were both soldiers so maybe they're hiding in the forest?"

Elijah frowns, "For their sake I hope not…which wars did they fight in?"

"Stefan fought in world war two and Damon fought in the civil war" she answers while keeping an eye out for any impending threats,

"Are there any buildings where they could take a defensive position? Where they know the layout and could fend off any attacks?" he asks.

Caroline closes her eyes and tries to think what Damon would be doing right now.

Being a major asshole sprang to mind.

Rick's apartment building wasn't likely, it was way too close to the town hall and the church was full of windows, the library was no better…the school.

"The school" she tells him excitedly, "It's the safest place for them to be. They know the layout and it's impossible to track people through there"

He stands in the sunlight and brushes his thumb over his daylight ring, "Lead the way"

* * *

A/N- Yeah right, like I would kill Elijah!


	13. Elijah II Jeremy I

A/N- Here we go. Now we're getting somewhere.

Also, as apology for my lack of Klaroline in this chapter and to partially make up for my absence, I wrote a smutty, smutty Klaroline one piece today called  
Bad Girls Don't...

fanfiction dot net/s/10829150/1/Bad-Girls-Don-t

* * *

"Where the bloody hell are my brothers?!"

Exhausted by her grief and her heartache, Katerina doesn't immediately answer, preferring instead to keep her gaze on the surface of the stunning white dining table with gold inlay. Her arms are folded in front of her and her head is bowed.

She can't remember ever being this tired, this sick of living, even when she'd buried her parents her mind had been awhirl with determination and solutions.

She'd had to run, had to hide, had to _survive_.

Though perhaps it is because she no longer has to run and hide that she is this tired.

Before she couldn't slow down for fear of being caught and now…

She can hardly imagine a time where she could want to move again.

"_Katherine!_" Rebekah's voice calls throughout the mansion, "I can hear you breathing ignoring me won't work"

Klaus had asked her to remain in New Orleans, the now Dowager Princess, the one who would have to step into the role Elijah had left behind.

She would have to be the one to offer Klaus logical and peaceful solutions when he wanted bloodshed.

She would have to be the voice of reason so that every supernatural and knowledgeable human in town wouldn't panic when they found out that the evil Original hybrid was now without his beloved pacifist brother and arm themselves for the apocalypse.

She would have to grit her teeth and smile through the endless parade of sycophants who'd be beating down her door to cry crocodile tears while pretending to mourn Elijah.

As if any of them had every really known him.

"Katherine bloody Pierce!"

With a sigh, she pulls herself up and crosses the room to where her handbag was tossed carelessly on the ground, she rummages through it until she finds her pocket mirror and checks to make sure her make-up is flawless.

"In _here_ Becky dearest!"

When Rebekah stomps into the formal dining room, it's to find Katerina sitting perched on the table in a parody of their first meeting in the house.

It's only been two weeks but so much has changed.

"Where the hell are my brothers?" Rebekah demands with a petulant sigh and her hands on her hips.

It's almost on the tip of Katerina's tongue to tell her the truth, that Elijah will never come home again but this isn't her news to share and she wants to keep her grief to herself for just a little bit longer.

"They're out in the business district" she lies smoothly,

"They spent the day with Erik watching Disney movies and the two of them eventually snapped and ran out of here like the place was on fire…" she tilts her head,

"Although, if the place had been on fire, I suppose Erik would have gone with them, he's in the sunroom playing with Raina if you want to see him"

The maternal instinct that Rebekah sometimes chooses to bring out and wave like a flag during her bouts of self-pity rears its head and she casts a longing glance through the open door as Erik, with his father's appreciation for theatrics, chooses that moment to start laughing.

It nearly works, Rebekah is lured towards the sunroom like a sailor to a siren before pursing her lips,

"What about Caroline?" she asks and Katerina suddenly remembers that even if the Original sister had disappeared early this morning with no explanation whatsoever, she had seen the chaos from the fake call.

"She got to Mystic Falls, her mom was in a car accident, nothing fatal the doctors were just overreacting because it's the sheriff"

Rebekah snorts and offers the insult "Small town fools"

Katerina leaves her hovering uselessly over baby Erik before striding out onto the front lawn and sinking to her knees in the grass, holding out her phone as she waits anxiously for a call,

"Come home Klaus" she whispers.

* * *

Elijah rubs the heel of his hand over his chest as he approaches the high school, he's scanned the area and there are no signs of hunters but he's still deeply concerned.

Beside him, Caroline Forbes, who is wearing the most grotesque black and gold tracksuit he has ever seen, is calm and collected, the white oak stake tucked inside her pants as if it isn't one of the most coveted and dangerous weapons in the world.

For a moment he wonders if the girl is simple. Certainly she is charming, sweet and well-bred but she is showing so little fear he has to wonder if Niklaus had mistakenly fallen for a fool.

"Perhaps the gym?" Caroline suggests as they walk in through the front doors, "It's the only room without large windows and controlled access, although they would have raided Alaric's classroom for all the weaponry that he stashed there…Elena only had time to clear some of it out after…_after_"

She darts ahead and pulls aside a bank of lockers, the screeching noise playing havoc on his eardrums, she ducks behind them and emerges a moment later with a shotgun and a bottle of bourbon.

"This was modified to kill vampires but I figure a bullet's a bullet, you know"

She offers it to him without hesitation and he banishes the cruel, uncharitable thoughts about her from his mind.

She wasn't overly frightened because she lacked proper understanding of the situation but because she trusted him to have her back and get her and the rest of the Mystic Falls coven out alive.

She barely knew him and yet she trusted him.

He envies her in that moment.

"Quite" he murmurs, before handing the weapon back to her, "But I am afraid that the last time I fired a gun was in 1810 and even though I was not ten paces from Niklaus my shot was hardly perfect…do you"

"Oh yeah" she shoulders the gun expertly over her arm, "Daddy was a Republican and mom's a cop, I spent more hours at the firing range than I did in dance class"

Well, Elijah's seen her waltz so her firing skills must be excellent.

"This way"

She leads him to the gymnasium, slowly and cautiously, both of them keeping an ear out for anything that could signal a hunter.

They hear loud sighs and idle chatter coming from the library and Caroline grins,

"That must be the summer school kids" she tells him in an excited whisper, hurrying him past the doors, turning him left and ushering him down a hallway, up ahead he sees ugly red double doors and, though he can't hear anything more than the gentle breeze of breathing, he can sense supernatural creatures inside.

Caroline rushes to the doors and then freezes at the last second, staring at them worriedly, possibly wondering if they were booby trapped or if one of her friends was waiting on the other side with another one of Alaric Saltzman's weapons.

He ushers her back and moves around her, pulling on the long handle and pushing the door open just enough for them to squeeze through.

No weapon is fired at them but Elena Gilbert hits him with the same amount of force as a bullet would have done.

Arms are around his neck and she is apparently trying to squeeze the air from his lungs,

"Elijah, we are so glad to see you!"

She pulls back and he wonders why she looks so strange, so unfamiliar before realising that he has spent the last six months waking up every morning to see Katerina's face and while she and Elena are doppelgangers, in this situation Katerina would never look so vulnerable or frightened.

Then again, his fiancé had lived her human years in a country occupied by the Ottomans and five hundred years fighting for her life.

It took a great deal to frighten Katerina Petrova.

Still, Elena Gilbert is a sweet child and a loyal friend, so he smiles reassuringly at her and nods politely to the Salvatore brothers,

"Hello Elena"

Meanwhile Caroline had spotted her mother lying on the bleachers and raced over, shouting her name,

"She's okay" Stefan calls as she leaps the last dozen metres and lands beside her mother, pulling her up and burying her face into her neck, Sheriff Forbes wakes up disorientated but sobs with relief upon seeing her child and they clutch each other in a true spectacle of a loving mother and daughter.

Esther and Mikael had tried to butcher them all, even Rebekah- their golden daughter.

He turns his face away to give the two women privacy, "How are you all?" he asks the Salvatore brothers,

"Bruised, battered and pissed off" Damon snaps, but then debriefs him properly, "We were called to town by Klaus which we're guessing meant that Caroline was given a fake message to ensure that all of us would be here. Hopkins is most likely the guilty party"

"He is" Elijah interjected, "They're using the town hall and are expecting payment for their services. There is somewhere between twenty and thirty of them and they are of the belief that there is one hundred vampires in Mystic Falls"

Damon snorts at that, "One hundred vampires? In a town of a couple of thousand humans? That's not possible- _anywhere_"

"Yes" he grins, "I do believe these hunters were hired for their trigger-happy methods not their intelligence"

He jerks his head and leads Damon and Stefan to the far side of the gymnasium, making sure to lower his voice to spare the women the knowledge of what he is about to say,

"There are witches surrounding the town's perimeter" he whispers, "They've spelled the border so that we cannot leave…Ms Bennett's mother is among them and her daughter has sided with the hunters"

Interestingly, while Stefan Salvatore has an expression of shock mingled with sorrow on his face, Damon Salvatore wears one of anguish.

Elijah hurries on to try and distract them from their pain, not out of compassion, but because if he does not complete this mission by nightfall then is little brother will surely come searching for him.

"Right now, our one advantage is that the witches and hunters believe that I am dead, fortunately they only grazed my heart with the white oak stake which is currently in Ms Forbes possession…Katerina told me that there is an underground railroad in Mystic Falls and that you know the location?"

Stefan raises his eyebrows at his brother who purses his lips and nods, "Yeah…mom turned a blind eye and distracted our dear dead father while Samson built it" he explains to Stefan, "As far as I know it's never been discovered in full…but the damn thing comes out in the forest and would barely be outside the perimeter if at all…do you think the witches spell will cover the underground?"

Elijah shrugs and tugs down his shirt sleeve once he notices Damon glancing at the band of his watch,

"We have to try, the alternative is to take shelter and hope that there are no reinforcements coming"

Damon exhales, "Alright…Good news everyone!" he calls across the room to the women,

"We're about to have a hands on history lesson, who wants to help me raid the chemistry lab and then blow up the boiler room?"

* * *

Jeremy sighed as Matt unlocked his phone for what had to be the thirtieth time that hour,

"What, d'you think the one hundredth time will be the charm?" he grumbles irritably as they roar down the highway back to Mystic Falls,

"D'you think Elena miraculously managed to send us a text and you somehow missed it in the three seconds you weren't staring at your screen?"

"Dude" Matt replies, not even looking up from his cell, "You being a dick is in no way _helpful_ to the situation"

Jeremy rolls his eyes and then swerves the car to avoid the wild cat skirting across the road, "I'm just saying, if they could call us then they would have already"

"Yeah and the fact that they haven't has me worried" Matt argues,

"I checked the entire house while you tried Elena, they all have their phones on them, so the fact that we can't contact any of them means we're heading into something dangerous"

Jeremy opens his mouth to make some snide comment, something sarcastic to distract Matt from his anxiety and also to get his blood up, to get him in a fighting frame of mind.

Like Damon did every time there was trouble in Mystic Falls.

But just as he's about to say something, Matt's cell starts ringing and he nearly drops the phone in his eagerness to answer it,

"Hello?" he shouts, "Wait…hang on a second"

He puts the cell on speaker before the caller even has time to say anything, "Hello? Are you there?"

"_Hi Matty blue blue_"

Great.

The voice on the other end sounds so much like Elena's but the tone is too low, too seductive to ever be mistaken for his sister's.

He knows Katherine flirted like crazy with Matt during the summer she was stuck in Mystic Falls as a human and he remembers Matt trying to justify giving in to temptation a couple of times, assuring Jeremy that it wouldn't mean anything because he wasn't interested in her romantically and he wouldn't be using her as a substitute for Elena because in the end, even though they had the same face, they didn't look all that much alike.

Jeremy had listened to the shockingly sound arguments, proof of the fact that Matt had thought long and hard about this but then Rebekah had taken Matt to Europe and when he'd got back there'd been the issue with Stefan coming out of the Quarry, Silas murdering Katherine and then her being resurrected just to make tracks the hell out of town, she'd made it all the way to Mexico before Elijah had caught her and then she'd apparently been forcefully relocated to New Orleans.

So when all was said and done, Jeremy was pretty sure Matt had missed his chance with his sister's evil doppelganger.

_Thank God_.

"Katherine" Matt sighs into the phone, "Not that it isn't great to hear your voice and all but we're kind of in the middle of…"

"_A trap_" she interrupts, "_You're in the middle of walking into a trap…please tell me you haven't made it to Mystic Falls yet_"

Jeremy frowns and quickly pulls over onto the side of the road, "We're about twenty minutes out, why?"

"_Uh…did you not hear me say trap?!_"

Now that he's concentrating, Jeremy can detect something else in Katherine's tone, she's trying hard but he's so accustomed to Elena's voice that he can pick out the notes of grief,

"What happened?" he asks her, he wants to say 'Who died?' but that question has been answered too many times for him over the years for him to willingly prompt the information from her.

But she herself isn't a novice in grief, one fellow sufferer recognises another,

"_Elijah…_" she breaks off and Jeremy can hear all the heartbreak in the shaky inhalation of her breath, "_Elijah was going to extract everyone but now Klaus has gone instead…and the two of you can't follow him, it's going to be hard enough finding the vampires without him having to go back for you two_"

"And you expect us to just sit by and wait to see if they make it out alive?!" Matt challenges,

"Should we head to the nearest IHOP and get afternoon tea while our family and friends are fighting for their lives?"

"_You should head to Richmond and hope that you cross paths with Klaus on the way_" she barks at them, "_Because right now I don't have all the information and he might actually have some answers or some use for you_"

She hangs up, either assuming that they'll follow her instructions or simply not caring if they don't and die.

And Jeremy hates her enough to consider disobeying her but the rational part of his brain and the part that still adhered to the code of the Five, tells him that she is right, they can't go running into town blind and simply hope to find everyone.

And, irony of ironies, Klaus is their best chance for survival.

That was how screwed this situation was.

"Let's get as close to town as possible" Matt decides, as Jeremy swings back onto the road,

"Then we can circle around and hopefully catch Klaus as he comes down from Richmond"

Jeremy nods once in agreement and then drops his chin again and nearly throws up onto the steering wheel.

"I don't think we need to circle around to ninety-five man" he mutters as he tries to swallow the bile in his throat, "I think Klaus is closer than that"

Matt frowns, "What makes you say th…oh…oh god"

He dry heaves and turns his face away as they rapidly approach the animal crossing sign.

No animal could have done this to a human being.

A body, a female body is hanging from the sign by her arms, they'd been held over her head and fixed in place by a stick through her wrists. Her face has been torn off and her clothes ripped down to her waist…below that there was nothing, no legs, only thin shreds of skin and tissue where the rest of her corpse should have been.

She looked like she'd been fed feet first into a meshing machine.

And there was only one bastard sick enough to do that to a person.

Jeremy stops the truck, ideally he wouldn't mind running into Klaus and then backing up a few times but Klaus probably isn't hanging out in an area accessible by a vehicle.

So he and Matt climb out and contemplate the forest on either side of the road.

"Well…if any horror movie we've seen ever is any indication, we should definitely _not_ split up" Matt says before cupping his hands around his mouth,

"Klaus!" he shouts into the forest, "Hey Klaus are you there?"

Jeremy punches Matt's shoulder so hard he doubles over and nurses it with his hand,

"Dude, come on that was right where Kol stabbed me"

"Are you insane?!" he snaps, "Anyone could be out there right now, including the people after us!"

Matt gives him a condescending look, "Jer, look what Klaus did to that body, anyone who is in the forest and not on his side is probably running like hell in the other direction right now"

He's right. If Klaus is taking the time to hang bodies like sick Christmas decorations then it's to deter or terrify his enemies into retreating.

But before he can accede that Matt's right, they hear an ear-piercingly loud scream coming from the east.

They take off at a run, racing through the forest, dodging low branches and leaping over fallen logs, skirting thick brush as the screams grow weaker and weaker, finally cutting off with a death rattle.

They emerge into the small clearing just as Klaus finishes his meal, his back to them as he crouches over a body on the ground.

This one belonged to a man.

They can tell from the arms that have been flung against a tree with enough force that the bone is embedded in the wood.

Jeremy is feeling every inch of his hangover right now, not even the adrenaline can settle his roiling stomach.

Klaus hears their approach and raises a single finger, asking them to wait before he wipes his mouth and rises to his feet with fluid grace,

"Ah" he says as he turns to face them, "Matthew, young Jeremy, how are you both?"

His entire front, from his mouth to his knees, is splattered in blood, random drops varying in size splashed over him like paint.

Hell, Klaus probably considered what he'd done to those poor people to be art.

Matt's eyes are bright with tears, he shakes his head in disgust, "What is wrong with you man?"

Klaus blinks, he the most pleasant and polite expression on his face but even through his black and gold eyes Jeremy can see that blood lust has taken over his mind,

"These people" he spreads his arm in a wide gesture that Jeremy interpreted to mean that there were a great deal more bodies spread out across the forest,

"These people came onto my father's- my biological father's-ancestral lands and killed my brother? My own blood on the lands that are mine by birth right!"

His placid expression is replaced by the fury that led to the slaughter, "Death was too merciful for them"

Jeremy felt his arms itching along the skin that had once been dark with tattoos.

The tattoos of the Five hunters.

The tattoos that had told him to kill all vampires.

Matt clears his throat beside him, distracting him from his murderous fantasies

"Uh…so we spoke to Katherine…" he explains slowly, cautiously as if talking to a mad man.

But the scary thing about Klaus is how _sane_ he really is.

"And she told us to find you, to stay with you and help you find Caroline"

Klaus tilted his head with an amused smirk, "Really? Stricken with grief for my brother and her main concern is finding Caroline? Damn" he cursed,

"She told me to bring back their hearts"

He glances towards the corpse with a sigh, "I'll collect them on the way back" he muses aloud, "Maybe I'll be in a merciful enough mood to kill them then"

Jeremy opens his mouth to argue, not a doctor but pretty certain that the guy had died of blood loss when Klaus had ripped his arms off.

Unless…

"You gave them your blood didn't you?" he moans, receiving a proud, cheeky nod in response,

"Witches mate, their absolute worst nightmare is to become an unholy, monstrous vampire"

He strides to the end of the clearing before turning back to them expectantly, "Shall we?

* * *

Elijah was not a tall man.

Granted during his human life he had towered over most of the men in the village, but in this day and age of high nutrition and vaccines he was average height at best.

However, he is absolutely struggling to make his way through these tiny passages carved out of the network of caverns he had known as a child.

"I think we're nearly there" Damon grunts from in front of him, "Or we're completely lost and will die down here, either or"

Elijah had volunteered to lead the way in case someone was waiting at the other end to set a trap but Damon had only walked this railroad three times and needed to be able to see every marking to try and remember the right route.

"Not…funny…asshole" Sheriff Forbes gasps from the back of the line.

The poor woman has partial claustrophobia and the air in the railroad is rancid from nearly two centuries without circulation.

As the only human in the party she is struggling to keep up but when Caroline suggested they take a break, her mother had shaken her head,

"We can rest once we're outside Virginia sweetie"

And from the length of time they had been walking for Elijah was almost certain they had to be near North Carolina by now, but when Damon stopped and did a celebratory fist pump, he realised that they couldn't be any further than the forest surrounding Mystic Falls.

"And here is where it gets tricky"

Elijah raised an eyebrow at the eldest Salvatore, "Dare I ask?"

The man pointed up to the ceiling of the passage where Elijah could see a trapdoor, "There's a lock on that and we don't have a ladder or the key"

"Huh" he frowned at it momentarily, "Everybody back up five…make it ten feet"

"Uh Elijah?" Elena called as Caroline obediently made sure everyone was out of the way,

"What are you going to do?"

"Well…" he removed his cufflink from his sleeve and rolled up his shirt, "That lock hasn't been touched in one hundred and seventy years, best case scenario it's completely rusted over and weakened but otherwise there are no complications, worst case scenario…"

"It's completely rusted over and jammed with one hundred and seventy years of dirt on top of it" Stefan interjects.

"Exactly, which is why…" Elijah pauses so that he can slam his hand into the cavern wall and remove a sizeable chunk of rock,

"In lieu of explosives I am going to force our way out of here"

He tossed the rock over in his hand a couple of times to get a feel for it before pulling his arm back and putting nine hundred years of strength into the throw.

The door didn't come off completely but it was torn right down the middle with enough space for one of them to force their way through, he stepped out of the way as the dirt piled into the cavern and came to his knees before trickling to a stop.

"There" he turned to the eldest Salvatore, "Should I throw another or just send one of us through?"

Damon chose to glare at him rather than answer, "I _knew_ Katherine had stolen my watch"

"Oh" Elijah glanced down at the watch on his wrist, "Yes, it is a lovely piece isn't it?"

He opened his mouth but Elena interrupted them, "Elijah, you go first and then you can lift Liz up"

Elijah looked over and saw that Sheriff Forbes breathing had become even more erratic, resenting the fact that he was about to be covered in muck, with his suit even more ruined, he sighed and prepared himself before he jumped.

A vampire can jump great heights if their way is unimpeded, as it was the rusted metal tore at his skin and clothes and hindered him enough that he had to claw and kick his way through the dirt like the vampires of legend.

But he emerged into the light of the dying day, quickly he crouched down and tore up as much of the metal as possible before lowering his arms down to lift the sheriff to freedom.

The woman gasped in great gulps of air before he even had her feet on the ground, she swayed and he reached out to catch her.

Which was beneficial because only seconds later the bullets started flying.

He pushed her to the ground and covered her with her body while the vampires below shouted their names.

Five men emerged from the surrounding forest, all heavily armed.

Amongst them the man that Elijah recognised all too well.

His is chuckling with pride, "I knew you'd take this exit" he crowed, "When the witches told me the magic wouldn't extend to the caves I knew you'd use the underground railroad…Damon Salvatore thinks he's so smart but he never bothered to cover up his ties to the Union army and as this was the only way out of town…"

"You knew we would be here, yes you have made that clear" Elijah climbed to his feet slowly, making sure to cover the sheriff at all times,

"However you forgot to factor in one small detail"

The man frowned, "And what was that?"

"My brother Niklaus"

Gun fire cracks through the summer air like lightning and two of the men drop to the ground with bullet wounds as Elijah races forward and rips out the hearts of the other two. By the time he turns around to face the last man, Niklaus has already decapitated him.

Niklaus had never considered the man worthy of his notice. He'd met him only once, after Tyler's actions had brought him back to Mystic Falls, they had sat at the same table and traded insults and threats but afterwards Niklaus had likely forgotten about him because he had thought his association with him complete.

So when he drops the body of Rudolph Hopkins on the ground and races into Elijah's arms, he wonders if his little brother realises that he had just murdered Bonnie's father.

* * *

A/N- Dun, dun, dun!


	14. Caroline VI

A/N- Hey Guys, remember me? The friend with benefits who will turn up unexpectedly and rock your world before disappearing for weeks on end without returning any of your calls?

I'm back!

P.S- Sorry Klaroliners, you won't be liking this chapter.

* * *

In the end, they had to walk three miles to the car Elijah had rented and been forced to abandon on the side of the road after his tires had been destroyed.

From there, they'd been able to get cell reception and Klaus' brother had called one of his many compelled men across the country to bring them two SUV's.

For the hour they waited they walked briskly, not using vampire speed because Caroline's mom was with them, but putting as great a distance as possible between Mystic Falls and themselves.

Elena had linked her arm through Caroline's as they'd walked, seeking comfort in her best friend, with Elijah leading the way and Klaus falling back.

She'd turned her head to look at him at the very back of the group and been worried about him,

"He's protecting our rear" her mom whispered at her side, "Keeping an eye out for threats"

"Oh _right_" Matt suddenly raised his head, her mom's words apparently prompting his memory,

"Uh Elijah, I don't know why but Katherine thinks you're dead so you might want to call her"

He rounds on Matt with confused eyes, "_Pardon?_"

"Katherine told us you were dead" Jeremy offered as explanation and clearly unsatisfied Elijah looked over the group to his brother,

"I felt a piercing ache in my heart when you died but Katerina already knew when she called me" Klaus calls casually from the rear.

"I did promise her the hearts of those who had killed you but perhaps a call from you shall suffice?"

Caroline watches as Elijah pivots on his heel and reaches into his jacket, she drops her head and deliberately tunes out so that she won't hear the reunion.

She tightens her grip on Elena and looks up at the setting sun.

It truly was a beautiful day.

Twilight had descended upon them, the sky had turned lilac and the world was finally beginning to cool, the cicadas were buzzing quietly and the trees were whispering above them. The road was still warm under their feet and completely empty of other humans.

So for a moment she pretends that they're just a large group of friends going for a walk at the end of a long summer day.

Friends and family who were chatting about unimportant things and were walking towards their home rather than away from it.

She pretends that she still _has_ a home to go to.

Caroline draws in a shaky breath and blinks rapidly- she can't fall apart now. Not when there could still be hunters waiting for them out there.

And she's momentarily distracted when Elijah staggers and holds his phone at arms lengths while an oh-so-familiar voice curses him out in several different languages,

"_Do you have any idea how heartbroken I was you son of a motherless whore?!_"

"Sign of a functional relationship right there" Stefan deadpans, falling in step with them, "Why don't you ever talk to Damon or me like that Elena?"

"Yeah" Damon throws an arm around her shoulders and Caroline releases her friend, shuffling closer to her mother. "Don't you love us?"

A little frown creases Elena's brow as she brushes her hair behind her ear and listens to the conversation between her doppelganger ancestor and his girlfriend, which despite Elijah's best efforts to apologise for the unintentional pain his death caused, is getting louder and louder as Katherine Pierce varies from the mainstream insults to historical ones,

"What's a g-?" she asks curiously but both brothers shrug, "Not a curse word I've ever heard"

"Now that takes me back" Klaus interjects, grinning as he reminisces fondly, "G- is an interesting insult, long story and even more complicated context but suffice to say even I rarely earned that level of abuse"

Caroline raises her eyebrows, "Wow, it must be bad then"

She realises belatedly what she said, typical of her to always say the wrong thing but Klaus simply laughs,

"Bad enough that I assume Elijah will be sleeping on the most uncomfortable couch we own for quite some time when he gets back to New Orleans"

New Orleans.

Of course, after this Klaus would be going back to the French Quarter.

He would be going home and Caroline…

She fidgeted and distracted herself by turning to her mom, "Are you okay?" she asks quietly,

"We can stop if the need is dire" Elijah offers, having finally ended his call,

"However, I would rather that we not rest until we are in the cars and as far away from Virginia as possible"

Her mom shakes her head, "I'm fine, I can't move as fast as a vampire but I can keep up at this pace"

But even with the vampire blood she'd drunk after being wounded at the hospital, Caroline can see that the day has taken its toll on her mom, as it had on all of them.

Damon was quieter than usual and Stefan was babbling to try and fill that void.

Elena was watching Jeremy almost exclusively but every few minutes would give her head a little shake as if to try and banish bad thoughts.

Perhaps the memory of that one particular body lying dead in the forest.

Caroline hadn't told her yet about Bonnie.

No.

She blinked and focused her thoughts on the beautiful day around them, sighing with relief when she sees the yellow glow of the approaching headlights.

"They're here" she announces gladly and the cars pull to the side of the road.

Two young men climb out, both of them wearing plaid shirts with thick glasses and scraggly beards. They resembled the post grad men on Whitmore campus, the ones who studied ten hours a day and emerged from their books only long enough to drink themselves stupid on imported beer and then pass out only to wake up and repeat it all over again the next day.

Elijah took the keys from them and the two men then pulled matching scooters out of the large backseats of the SUV's.

"_Wait!_" Elena stepped forward just as Elijah turned to hand Damon a key, "We can't just leave them here!"

Elijah blinked in surprise and Klaus stepped in, "They'll be fine love, my big brother always pays his students exceptionally well"

"And I asked them specifically to bring modes of transportation capable of getting them back to Richmond" he assures her,

"I didn't want them to travel with us unless we encountered more danger"

Elena clearly wasn't satisfied and climbed into the backseat of the second car to sulk as Damon took the keys and the order to follow them.

Elijah would be driving the first car with Klaus taking shotgun, Caroline was already in the backseat with her hand on the door handle when she saw her mom cast a glance to the second car. She felt a stab of hurt but with Jeremy and Matt in the backseat with Elena, she wouldn't have a choice but to ride with Caroline and the brothers.

"So," Caroline waits until they've pulled out and are driving about fifty miles over the speed limit before asking,

"Where are we going?" with as bright a tone as possible,

She can see Klaus frowning in the passenger mirror and open his mouth before turning to Elijah,

"Richmond airport I suppose"

* * *

It took them an hour longer than they'd expected to find a hotel.

Not because it was summer or there was some convention in town but because Klaus apparently had veto power and used it on every hotel they came across.

Double Tree by Hilton- too many entry points and the staff couldn't offer them all rooms on the same floor.

Courtyard by Marriot- same issue and all those windows were a sniper's daydream.

Caroline eventually used her phone to draw up all the hotels within a two mile radius of the airport. Which was apparently a necessity on Klaus' mental checklist and handed him her phone so they could stop driving around town.

Treating the website like it was a Tindr page for accommodation, Klaus swiped through every option until he found one that he believed suited their needs.

So it was after eleven when the eight of them pulled into Motel Six.

The motel had clearly seen better days, with seventies architecture and a swimming pool that had tarp pulled over it, a reception that boasted one computer as it's 'business station' and offered a bank of vending machines in place of a bar.

But it had clear vantage points so Klaus could see the road, it bordered on a small forest so they had an escape route if they needed one.

Caroline _really_ hoped they wouldn't need one.

They all took rooms on the second floor, as close to one another as possible, splitting up as the rooms only offered two beds maximum.

Klaus and Elijah took the room closest to the stairs, assuming that the human attackers would need to come up that way with Matt and Jeremy in the room next to them so they had ease of access in the event of escape.

Elena, Stefan and Damon were next, ignoring the curious glance of the young man at the reception desk as they grabbed the two keys and went upstairs to push the beds together.

Caroline and her mom were in the final room, with one businessman and one couple in the two rooms between them and their wonders why she is so far from Klaus before figuring out that if they were attacked, she and her mom would be the furthest from danger.

They break away to their rooms, checking out the bathrooms, locking the windows, idly channel surfing before deciding there wasn't anything to watch and languidly contemplating whether or not to raid the vending machines.

Very few words were spoken by the Mystic Falls coven, not due to their exhaustion but rather their shock.

That very morning they had woken up with the knowledge of their place in the world and their sense of security in its permanence. They'd had their houses, their places of sanctuary in the town where they had grown up, where their family had lived for generations and where they had known what times their favourite stores closed, which librarian would help them avoid late fees, where to buy the best coffee, which swimming hole was the best in the hot summer and which parks were the best for what little snow they managed to get in the winter.

Mystic Falls had been their home.

It had been _theirs_.

And in the space of one day it had been taken from them.

And they couldn't just head back tomorrow and hope to take it back. The hunters could still be there for weeks or months waiting for their payment or for the vampires to return and if witches had managed to spell the town perimeter to stop them leaving once, what was to stop them from spelling it again? Or reworking the spell so that they couldn't enter?

So they weren't just mourning the loss of property or possession, they were mourning the loss of the last vestiges of innocence that had remained within them.

Still, Caroline Forbes is an optimist. So after half an hour of moping, she notes how pretty the blue feature walls are and how comfortable the beds are, not to mention clean.

However, she also notes that Klaus had walked past their room twice already, not even looking in the window to try and catch a peek or anything, his eyes had clearly been on the parking lot below.

But seeing him makes her think about tomorrow.

After all, they aren't two miles from Richmond airport in case they get a sudden craving for really dodgy canned fish sushi. They're there because tomorrow they'll be getting on planes destined for 'the hell away from Virginia'. They might not have to leave America but they sure as hell can't stay in the state where people are literally hunting them for sport.

The only question is- _where_ are they going?

Caroline has a suspicious feeling that her mind is already partially made up.

It makes sense.

But Klaus walking past her room for a fourth time…not so much.

* * *

Her mom is in the bathroom so she slips outside, onto the dark balcony lit only with the light emanating from the rooms where their friends were staying. It was midnight by this point.

She is waiting at the end of the balcony, watching as he strides in and out of the light, his features being highlighted and then cast into shadow.

"Hey" she greets him softly as he reaches her, he gives her a small nod and grips the balcony railing, gazing out into the night lit with the street lamps and occasional passing cars.

"Hello sweetheart"

"Okay, should I be worried?" she asks, leaning against the railing next to him, crossing her arms and studying his profile. He shakes his head,

"I'm just keeping an eye out"

"_Four_ times in an hour?" she points out only to receive a shrug in response,

"Elijah called Katerina again and managed to calm her down sufficiently enough for the conversation to turn to discussion of what clothes they were wearing" he meets her understanding gaze with a grimace, "I made myself scarce and I'm not in the mood to sleep anyway"

She knows what he means.

She too is restless.

Emotionally exhausted but physically she's full of energy.

And _perhaps_…

She leans over and strokes his cheek with her fingers, taking his chin and drawing him towards her for a lingering kiss,

"I don't feel like sleeping either" she whispers, stepping back to where the balcony rounds the corner by a few feet and unzipping her tracksuit top slowly.

He follows her, his eyes gleaming predatorily,

"Are you sure sweetheart?" he asks, always desiring her vocal consent, forever wanting to hear her choosing him.

She drops the top on the ground and plays with her bra strap, "Uh huh, come and get me"

He presses her against the wall, his lips on hers in a bruising kiss as she clutches his shirt in her fists and his hands land on her hips and slide up her back to the clasp of her bra. She pulls him closer and can feel him responding through his denim so she lifts a leg to straddle him and rub herself against him until his erection is pressing against his zipper.

They break apart for air when they hear the sound of a door opening, there's a faint cough and Caroline can hear Matt and Jeremy arguing about sodas and chocolate bars. They wait, panting, until the boys are downstairs and then Klaus presses his erection to her juncture and she moans,

"Right" he hisses, looking around, "Forest" he nods to the trees, "Go"

She nods quickly and leaps over the balcony, landing gracefully on the oft-fixed asphalt of the parking lot and remembering belatedly that her top was still on the second floor. She speeds into the cover of the tree line and is rewarded seconds later when Klaus joins her, wrapping an arm around her waist and holding her against him for another passionate kiss.

It's good. It's great but…

She wants _more_.

She breaks away from Klaus, pulls his blood-splattered t-shirt off, with him lifting his arms to help her and pushes him harshly to his knees. He goes down with a look of surprise but watches her intently as she toes off her flats and wriggles out of her track pants and panties. She runs a hand through his golden curls and yanks his head back, he licks his lips, and she swings her leg over his shoulder, drawing him to her vagina. He scrapes his blunt teeth against her thigh and she trembles with delight at the sensation before he runs his tongue along her folds and circles her clit before delving in.

Caroline throws back her head with a breathy moan as he licks and sucks up every drop of her arousal, drinking her up like a man dying of thirst.

She runs her free hand through her hair, the other still clutching Klaus' curls, tugging on them in what must be painful for him.

But…it's not _enough_, she _can't_…

She lifts her leg back and shifts away from him slowly. His tongue runs along her folds until she is out of its reach and he groans pitifully, his lips covered in her arousal, "Come back sweetheart"

She shakes her head, "No"

She shoves him to the dirt and sees the surprise on his face as he falls back and lands on his elbows, she knows she's never been this aggressive before.

Confident yes, rough- a little bit, but never like _this_.

But he's not frightened or unwilling so what does it matter?

She straddles his knees and undoes his belt, tearing it from the loops and tossing it aside somewhere, she almost rips his jeans as she pulls down his zipper and realises belatedly that if Klaus hadn't been wearing boxers he'd probably be bleeding momentarily. But she gets him free and wraps a hand around his large throbbing cock. He hisses with pleasure and pain as she squeezes it just a bit too hard before stroking him. She can smell both their arousal and her nipples pebble, protesting against the silk of her bra. She pulls it off, revealing her breasts to Klaus who grins and tries to reach up, to capture her globes in his mouth but she pushes him roughly onto his back.

His eyes flash black momentarily and her fangs drop and she surges forward, burying her face in his neck as she tears his skin open and drinks deeply. He rolls his hips up, the tip of his cock finding her wet folds but she lifts her ass to deny him, he hisses as she sucks greedily on his blood and when his hands move to her hips she takes them and holds them down in the dirt, level with his head.

She pulls her mouth back, her lips wet with his blood and flares her blood red eyes at him, he growls at her display of dominance, the wolf in him refusing to submit to this vampire.

He uses his strength to flip her over onto her back, capturing her hands and holding them above her head,

"I'm the Alpha love" he points out, his eyes dancing black and gold before he steals a passionate kiss and she moans, pressing herself against him eagerly,

Yes.

This, this is what she…

_She throws the lamp across the room first and when he dodges it easily the pillow follows. She's telling him to get out, to stay away from her but he's ignoring everything she says and when he raises his head, his eyes are red and he…_

"No" she shrieks into the night, bucking wildly and kicking out, "No, no, _no_…get off me _now_!"

"Caroline!" Klaus releases her immediately and throws himself backward, scrambling to his feet and holding out his hands at arm's length, palms up in a non-threatening manner, watching her with deep concern as she curls up into a foetal position and struggles for air and justice before she can bring herself to calm down and push herself up to her feet.

Klaus is clearly confused and scared and she feels herself go red with humiliation and shame.

"I'm sorry" she squeaks, sobbing, "I…just…_not_ like that"

"Forgive me" he entreats quickly, "I didn't see the signs"

"Because there weren't any" she chokes, turning sideways and covering her eyes with her hand, "Because I'm an idiot"

"Oh sweetheart" Klaus is at her shoulder, his hand hovering above her arm before he pulls it away,

"I don't know what I want" she shouts, "I mean I want to fuck you and break you and make you beg while you dominate me but without hurting you or actually being dominated"

She realises how dumb she sounds and breaks off with a sob, "God I'm so stupid"

He shakes his head, "No, you're simply aroused, emotionally fragile and confused. You want pleasure but aren't currently sure how to obtain it"

He glances around with a thoughtful look before freeing himself of his boots and jeans and striding into the forest. She hears the shifting of earth, dirt and twigs falling to the ground before Klaus returns with a boulder in his arms. He drops it down and perches on it, holding out his hands for her.

Sensing his patience, she makes sure that she has her emotions under control before she skittishly moves forward and smiles when his hands cup and squeeze her bum, giving her a quick pinch to make her squeal and laugh before he solemnly leans forward and kisses her thigh,

"Use me tonight sweetheart" he proposed, "However you like for as long as you like with no worry for my pleasure"

Her tears are still drying on her cheeks but his eyes show no resentment or selfishness, but still she shakes her head, "I don't want to hurt you"

Tonight, even his smirk is kind, "You couldn't possibly sweetheart, firstly I heal and secondly I know well how to find my pleasure in pain. Use me however you wish and know that it shan't change anything I feel for you"

She strokes his cheek and he leans into her palm, nuzzling it with complete and utter trust.

"I do love you" she whispers as she bends down to brush her lips against his before she straddles his lap. He guides his penis into her and she hums at the delightful, familiar sensation of him filling her completely. Her vaginal walls clench and stretch around him and envelope him in her hot, soaking arousal. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and he rests a hand on her back to keep her steady as she tries to find purchase on the boulder and crosses her legs tight around his back. He waits motionless as she makes herself comfortable and then she kisses his jaw and bites his earlobe,

"Suck my breasts" she orders him in a husky voice, feeling so dirty just for saying that to him.

And he obeys her, her breasts are level with his mouth and he licks and laves them in turn, sucking until she gasps and rolls her hips, grinding against him and his fingers dig into her skin.

His golden curls tickle her and she gazes down upon him lovingly.

He was her angel. He was her monster.

Either way, he was _hers_.

"Drink" she whispers, riding him slowly and guiding him with a tender hand back down to her right breast when he mistakenly lifts his head to her neck,

"No my love, here"

He takes a shuddering gasp but gently sinks his fangs into her soft breast as she surrenders herself to the wondrous sensation of his venom finding its home in her veins and her orgasm rushing up from her vagina to her brain. He lifts his head and she kisses him tenderly before she lies back on his knees, looking up at the night sky as his penis presses against her front wall. He holds her hips to keep them balanced as he thrusts determinedly, chasing his release now that she has hers. She murmurs his name and breaths deeply as he comes apart inside her, their arousal mingling and dripping onto the boulder, marking this rock and this forest as their territory.

* * *

She shivers and leans against the pool fencing as Klaus retrieves her tracksuit top from the second floor balcony.

"Thanks" she whispers bashfully as he helps her shrug it on, smiling when he playfully kisses her shoulder, she falls back knowing that he will catch her and he wraps her in his embrace, burying his nose in her hair and breathing in her scent,

"I forgot to give you my blood _again_ didn't I?" he moans, "Bloody hell"

She giggles, "You did, but…not yet"

He tugs her closer and they enjoy the sounds of the night around them, the faint roar of traffic, night birds calling to one another, even the harsh mumble of the television in the reception area.

"We should come up with some safe words" she muses aloud, "You know, in case I freak out again in the future"

He hums in reluctant agreement and she's certain that soon he'll demand to know the cause of her panic but tonight, tonight they pushed their boundaries and discovered new trust in one another, so tomorrow can be delayed because their tonight, their _now_ is perfect.

"I'll go back to New Orleans with you" she promises, reaching down to clasp his hand with her own,

"I can't promise that everything will be perfect, because it won't be and the next few months will probably be hard on me, on us" she tilts her head back to meet his eyes, "But my choice is to be with you Niklaus"

* * *

A/N- What's that Klaroliners? I lied to you? Why yes I did, you can't trust me.


	15. Caroline VII Abigail I

A/N- Merry Christmas to all.  
In regard to TO. I actually hope that Klebekah happens and Elijah takes Esther's offer and becomes human too, then when she's going on about how she's saved her children from being monsters someone speaks up and says  
'Yeah...bout that, now that your kids are no longer related by blood they're crawling ALL over each other...seriously, it's like a HBO special going down in Bourbon St'  
I also hope that it turns out that Dalia doesn't exist, she's just the darkness in Esther personified and Finn bought into her hallucinations.  
This is my brain people.

* * *

Caroline blushed with embarrassment when Elijah opened the motel door, she was certain he could tell through sight or smell what she and Klaus had been up to.

Then again, for a guy who'd supposedly been having phone sex for the last hour, he was remarkably put together, his hair was slightly ruffled but the clothes he'd been wearing earlier had been washed of the blood and dirt and air dried. He was even clean shaven although Caroline has to wonder how because the Motel only provided mini shampoos and soap and every store within a mile radius was closed.

Then again, it is Elijah- maybe he simply _willed_ himself clean.

"Ms Forbes" he greets her as politely as he always does, "Brother"

He steps aside immediately to let them into the room, identical in every aspect to the one Caroline is sharing with her mother.

Klaus strides the two paces to his bed and hands her his set of towels,

"Here love"

"Should I make myself scarce?" Elijah offers and Caroline blushes an even deeper shade of red,

"_No!_" she blurts out, "No…uh I'm just using your shower because mine is out of hot water…not that I _need_ hot water" she adds hastily, so he doesn't think that she's a diva, "But if I have the option then I'd prefer it to cold you know"

"How's Katerina?" Klaus asks, deliberately changing the subject and Caroline feels a sense of relief, Elijah sighs,

"She is well, still absolutely furious with me and it is more than likely I'll return home tomorrow to find that she's soaked my favourite suits in bleach…impulsive minx that she is"

His voice is laced with the tenderness that Caroline always hears when he's speaking about Katherine and she admires the fact that he can see the _good_ in her whilst struggling to remember that some people saw Elena's ancestor as a person capable of being good as opposed to someone capable of smothering innocent victims with pillows.

Caroline opens her mouth to tell them that she's taking a shower but then realises she's being stupid and just scurries into the bathroom, closing the door and dropping her shoulders.

The bathroom is clean and white, with a pretty decent shower considering they're in a cheap motel. Caroline strips off quickly and then tries to figure out what to do with her clothes.

They're dirty, torn, stained and well…her panties need a wash and the only thing she could possibly wear again is her bra. She gives them all a quick rinse and hangs them over the towel rail as she steps into the shower and turns the water on full blast.

She looks down at the water cascading off her body and into the drain and then quickly looks away when she sees how discoloured it is.

She hadn't realised how filthy she'd got during the day…how the hell Klaus werewolf nose hadn't kicked in and killed his boner was beyond her.

Then again, he was an immortal twenty-one year old guy, she could have been covered in fertiliser and he probably would have just suggested shower sex.

That image makes her laugh out loud and she's smiling as she runs her fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp and untangling the strands from her daylight ring when it catches. But her thoughts go from momentary happiness to anxiety.

Oh God she was moving to New Orleans…

She had so much to organise…

Was she going to live with Klaus? Where was she going to study? Tulane obviously but she would have to organise the transfer and she would need a car to get to or from campus…unless there was public transport? Unless she moved onto campus?

But if she moved onto campus when would she see Klaus? And how could she afford to live on campus? Sure she could probably compel herself a scholarship or something and a meal card but she'd need groceries and with security cameras everywhere, very few vampires could get away with compelling themselves in and out of Walmart.

Of course Klaus would probably hand her his wallet or something or provide her with gourmet gift baskets once a week but what kind of relationship would that be if she was completely dependent on him?

Okay, so she'd need to find a job…easy enough, lots of college kids had jobs…unless she took out a loan?

No Klaus would probably just buy the loan company.

And then they would fight and she would storm out but that would be pointless because he had an entire city of supernatural creatures under his command and would find her in under an hour and he wouldn't give her space to deal with her thoughts and she'd get angry and they'd break up and then she wouldn't be able to handle being in the same town as him and…

Okay. She's thinking way too far ahead.

They still had to _get_ to New Orleans first.

And not just her and Klaus...oh and Elijah, but her, Klaus, Elijah, Stefan, Damon, Elena, Jeremy, Matt and her mom.

Crap! She'd have to talk her mom into moving to New Orleans and she would _not_ be happy about living in the same house as Klaus.

Then again, Elijah had told her that they had properties all over the city so maybe she could stay in one of those while she searched for a house?

But property would be a lot more expensive in New Orleans than it was in Mystic Falls.

And how would they get their stuff from their house?

_Okay_.

Caroline turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping one towel around her body and using the other to dry her hair as much as possible before she contemplated her still wet clothes.

"Caroline" Klaus calls her name and knocks on the door and she clutches the towel to her chest to make sure it's still there before remembering that he saw her naked not even an hour ago.

"I'll be out soon" she promised but he chuckled, "I'm not kicking a gorgeous woman out of my bathroom love, Elijah's gone to the airport to see if he can't find some clothes for your mother, Elena and yourself"

She opens the bathroom door and sticks her head out, "Seriously? He's going to that much effort?!"

Klaus shrugged, trying to downplay his brother's generosity, "I think it's less chivalry on his part and more determination not to be seen in public with a woman in a velour tracksuit love,"

"Hey!" she smirks, "I was proud of that disguise, after all, nobody would ever expect to see Miss Mystic Falls slumming it around town"

Klaus grinned, "You'll find no protest from me love, I personally am a fan of any clothing that's easy to get off you"

She rolls her eyes but pads across the room and sits on his bed, he follows her and crouches down before her knees, opening his mouth to speak before closing it again with a puzzled frown on his face.

She knows this look, this is his 'I have no idea how to navigate this chance for emotional expression and connection' face.

Elijah had quietly explained to Caroline one afternoon that Mikael had often beaten Niklaus when he was 'too happy' or being 'too emotional' with his siblings.

The end result was that nearly one thousand years later Klaus was still uncertain when it came to connecting with people, he either forged a strong and lasting bond with them where the other person learnt not to expect effusive displays of affection or a passing acquaintance and with her- well, she was pretty certain she was one of the few women he'd let in over the long years, if not the only one.

She settles her hands in her lap and waits, he stares at her knuckles and traces them with his finger momentarily distracted by the artist within him before strengthening his resolve,

"If you're having second thoughts about New Orleans love it's alright" he assures her, giving her a gentle smile,

"The wonders of aeroplanes and fast cars means we can see each other as often as we like"

She huffs in surprise and her mouth hangs open, "What makes you think I'm having second thoughts? I haven't _said_ anything!"

"Your heartbeat" he answers simply, "It was so fast paced in the shower you were either anxious, having a heart attack or indulging in an affair"

She rolls her eyes, "Okay, first rule you _can't_ eavesdrop on me when I'm in the shower because that's my thinking place or my singing place and…"

"You can sing?" he inquires curiously and she glares at him, "And I have the right to expect privacy when I'm in the shower alone!"

He accepts this with a shrug, "Alright then Caroline but my offer still stands"

"I'm going with you" she answers before she can think about it, knowing that she should have taken the minute or so he would have granted her to make sure she knew her own mind but she figures she would have changed her decision another two or three times in that period.

She had to stop over-thinking everything and just jump in dammit.

"I'm going with you" she promises again, unclasping her hands and resting them on his shoulders,

"Because I want to, because you'll protect me, because I already know the Tulane curriculum by heart- shut up" she adds when he smirks,

"Because it'll be easier for mom and I to start our lives over in New Orleans than any other city and because…I want to be with you"

His shoulders are firm under her hands, lean muscles and strength to shelter her, to protect her and her mother, to weather her emotions and anxieties and to love her always.

And he did love her, she saw it in his eyes- the way they lit up when he saw her and followed her around the room, in his touch- how when his hands grabbed her in the midst of passion they trembled as he consciously checked to make sure he wasn't hurting her, in his everyday actions- stocking her favourite almond milk and coffee in his home, checking the oil levels on her car when he thought she wasn't looking, spending his days playing tourist in his own city so that she could see everything New Orleans had to offer.

He had yet to say those three words to her but she could wait, his actions proclaimed his feelings loudly enough.

His eyelids flutter closed and he tilts forward kissing her knee and resting his hand on her thigh, she parts her legs and his kisses trail upward until he is almost…

The knock on the door has her jumping and Klaus hurriedly pulls his head back,

"Elijah?" he calls,

"And Elena Gilbert" his brother answers, "In search of Caroline"

She glances down at her towel clad body and panics before realising that Elena's seen her like this before and knows that she and Klaus have been…well.

"Come in" she calls, clearing her throat as Elijah unlocks the door and Elena steps over the threshold, takes in the image of Klaus kneeling in front of Caroline's legs and her eyes widen a fraction but she doesn't say a word. She gestures to the cheap black maxi dress she's now wearing,

"There's one for you in blue" she says, holding out the plastic bag that it comes in, Caroline takes it gratefully and sees that there's a pair of supermarket bra and panties in there too.

She _really_ hopes that Elijah didn't buy lingerie for her mom as well.

She ducks into the bathroom and quickly throws on the clothes, the bra is her size and she's both impressed and slightly freaked that Elijah could guess her cup size but beggars can't be choosers.

When she's dressed and decent she follows Elena out into the warm night and along the balcony until they reach the room she's sharing with the Salvatore brothers.

Caroline walks in the door and sees that Jeremy and Matt are sitting on the two pushed together beds while Damon sits at the small table with a glass of bourbon in his hand and Stefan leans against the wall.

"So" Elena cleared her throat and clapped her hands "Now that we're all here, we've been thinking about tomorrow"

Caroline feels trapped and targeted, thinking that she's been brought into a confrontation before she notes Matt's curiosity and figures that Elena's '_we_' meant her and her boyfriends.

"We wanted to know what options we have" her best friend explains further, "Where we can go, you know"

_Oh right_.

Caroline had been so busy planning _her_ future she hadn't even considered her friends.

She was a terrible person…or maybe just exhausted.

"New Orleans" she blurts out quickly, reddening when she sees Damon's smirk,

"Shut up" she tells him firmly, "Seriously though, Klaus has plenty of room for us there, the city is full of vampires so it can sustain a few more and we'd be safe in case the hunters or Bon…" she stammers and tries to cover up where her thought was headed, "In case the hunters come looking for us"

"If anyone comes looking for us, New Orleans will be the first place they'll search" Stefan points out and shrugs apologetically when she glares at him,

"It's true Caroline…especially if we're in a big group"

And if they weren't? What if they split up?

But she doesn't want to consider that yet, so she perches on the tiny windowsill,

"Okay" she looks around the room, "I'm open to suggestions?"

Matt clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck, "Um…earlier today, when we were finally able to get a signal I got an email from the culinary school I applied to in New York…I've been accepted and I should be able to get a student loan so…I thought I'd head there"

Everyone is momentarily distracted congratulating Matt on this accomplishment, even Damon offers his version of praise,

"So you'll finally learn how to cook Quarterback"

"I have an apartment in New York" Stefan suggests, "It's in Greenwich village, you can live there rent free"

Matt grins, "Thanks, but aren't you coming with?"

"I _am_" Jeremy speaks up before anyone else, "I'll find work or get a GED or maybe do something with my sketching"

"There's art schools in New Orleans" Caroline points out, "And rent free accommodation"

"There's also homicidal psychopathic dictators"

"Jere!" Elena scolds but he's shaking his head, "No. You guys didn't see what Klaus did to those witches, he tore them apart and left their corpses out as a message, I _can't_ be in the same town as a monster like that. Not when we'd have to live and move in the same circles as him"

"In fairness to the homicidal psychopathic dictator" Damon snarked, "He thought those same witches had killed his brother, hell I'd have probably done the same thing"

"Jere can come live with me" Matt suggests, "Hey, maybe some human living will be good for us"

Damon rolls his eyes, "There are vampires in New York idiot"

"Not as many as are in New Orleans" Caroline argues dully, "I asked Klaus last week" she continues as she once again explains away her intelligence,

"What about you three?" she asks with a hint of desperation, "Six of us is noticeable but five isn't much better"

Elena is still staring at Jeremy with her forlorn eyes so Stefan speaks for her, "We were thinking we'd head to the west coast, L.A maybe or road trip around the states for a while"

"We'll stay in NOLA for a week or so" Elena promises, "We all will, we'll need the time to organise…everything"

Everything.

_Right_.

All they have right now is the clothes on their backs and whatever was in their pockets and had survived the day.

Everything they owned was right where they left it, their shoes scattered across the floor wherever they'd kicked them off onto, clothes were in the drawers and wardrobes, their family jewellery and make-up in their bedrooms, laptops sitting on desks in the Boarding house waiting for owners who might never come back for them.

And suddenly she's crying because she'll never be able to go home again, to the house she grew up in where all her photo albums, scrap books, favourite teddy and _everything_ is.

Even as Elena pulls her into her arms and cups her head soothingly their enemies could be breaking into their homes and destroying their treasured possessions and even if they had enough decency to leave them, how long before looters raided the Boarding House? There was centuries worth of artwork and literature there that would be damaged or destroyed without thought.

And usually she doesn't even care about this kind of stuff but if she'd had time, if she'd been told that she would have to flee, she would have ransacked all of their homes and packed up the things that couldn't be replaced.

Their memories of those they'd loved and lost. Their photos and souvenirs from their happier times, the pieces and possessions that was integral to their identity, part of what defined them.

And Damon's Camaro…

"I'm being an idiot" she apologises pulling back, laughing self-consciously "I'm fine really"

She ignores Elena's worried look and hurries from the room but Stefan catches her on the balcony and holds her by the shoulders, giving her a comforting smile,

"It's going to be okay" he assures her, "This is the third time I've been driven out of town Care, I'd be more worried if you weren't crying"

She laughs, "I have to go talk to my mom, try and explain to her that New Orleans is really a great place"

Her mom is in the bathroom getting dressed and using the toiletries Elijah had kindly purchased for her, Caroline sits on the edge of the bed with her back to the window and bounces once, using her eternal optimism to pull herself out of her grief.

When her mom finally emerges, Caroline has already prepared a spiel about how beautiful and amazing New Orleans was.

But she hadn't even begun her segment on the French Quarter before she saw the expression on her mother's face.

Dread.

"You don't want to go to NOLA do you?" Caroline sighed, swallowing around the lump in her throat. Elizabeth shook her head, "No honey I don't. I dealt with the supernatural in Mystic Falls because it was my hometown, our family has lived there since before it even had a name but…I don't think I could handle vampires, werewolves and witches on the scale that would exist in such a large town"

She closes her eyes and Caroline can see just how tired her mother is, how emotionally exhausted and not just because of that day but of the years that had seen her lose a daughter to vampirism and her ex-husband to death, her friends and the people she had sworn to protect cut down in their prime.

Caroline suddenly wants nothing more than for her mother to be able to rest, to start over in a small, supernatural free town, maybe near a beach where all she had to worry about was drunk drivers and petty thefts. Where she could work the day shift and go home at night to a nice house and maybe even go on dates with a guy.

She couldn't have that life with her daughter. Caroline wasn't one for a life in a small town and supernaturals attracted supernaturals…she would be putting her mom's life in danger if she stayed with her.

So she leans over and takes her mom's hand, "We'll find something for you" she promises,

"Just come to NOLA for a little while, so we can get everything sorted out and then we'll figure out where to go next"

Her mom smiles and struggles to hold back a yawn, "First, we need to sleep" she instructs her daughter, "Nothing can be done when we're only half-awake"

Caroline laughs and stands up to turn off the lights, plunging the room into semi-darkness as the two women climb into their beds.

Briefly she worries about nightmares but when she faces the window she sees the tell-tale shadow of Klaus once again pacing the balcony.

He would keep them safe.

* * *

Abigail kept an eye on her daughter as they arrived at the meeting point. Bonnie hadn't stopped crying since the moment they'd found her father's butchered corpse in the forest.

There was no question as to the culprit. Klaus Mikaelson had torn through any witch who'd had the misfortune to cross his path yesterday.

The rest were fleeing back to Salem, the only place left in the United States of America that was truly a haven for witches.

Good people and noble witches. Men and women who had died fighting for a cause they believed in.

Dead because one monster had wished to save his paramour but had been too cowardly to step in until after his brother had been taken down.

Abigail grips the steering wheel and glares out into the empty parking lot where they were waiting to meet Celeste, the witch was running late as usual, likely having misjudged the amount of time needed to get from New Orleans to Athens.

And right now, Abigail didn't want to be sitting still with nothing to do, the inactivity gave her time to think, time to realise how much she would miss her ex-husband.

Sighing she climbs from the car and walks around the hood to the passenger door, opening it and holding out a hand for her daughter,

"Let's go for a walk" she suggests gently, "Get some fresh air"

"This is your fault" Bonnie sobbed, tears running down her cheeks "Dad is dead _because_ of you!"

Abigail sighed, "He's dead because he left the Town Hall, I told him that when this went down he should find somewhere safe to hide until the hunters were done…_He_ approached _me_ with this idea Bonnie, I just helped him source the witches"

"He's dead!" she shouted, "He's dead and everything is ruined. Caroline's going to go straight back to Klaus and spin everything so that Elena, Matt and Jeremy will hate me!"

"Well" a voice calls out from the night, "War requires sacrifices of us all"

Both Bennett women turn to face Celeste as she strides across the parking lot.

"You'll get your revenge" the witch promises as she comes to a stop, "It may take a while but we _will_ see the Originals fall"

Abigail reaches into her handbag and draws out the white oak stake with the plastic bag wrapped around it,

"Here" she holds it out as offering, "We couldn't get to Klaus but we managed to wound Elijah"

Celeste snatches it from her hands and checks it over eagerly, beaming when she sees the blood stains on the wood.

"Perfect" she praises, "This is exactly what we need"

Bonnie glares at her, "You said we needed _Klaus_' blood!"

Celeste shrugs, "That was before I heard that he went mad with grief at the loss of his brother. Elijah is one of the true loves of the hybrid's life"

She raises her head and Abigail sees the spark of destiny in them,

"If we can't attack Klaus directly we'll take our time and destroy everything and everyone that he loves…until he is _praying_ for death and then you'll have your revenge and if we play our cards right, you could even win your little friends back"

Bonnie exhales with longing and shifts in her seat, "I don't want them all back" she admits, "Stefan, Damon…even Caroline and Elena, I don't care what happens to them but Matt was led astray and Jeremy…he'll have to come back soon"

Her hand settles on her stomach, "Because I'm pregnant with his baby"

* * *

Morning came quickly for them. Caroline felt as though she'd barely laid her head down to rest before Stefan was knocking on their motel door telling them that it was time to leave.

They were grainy eyed with faces bloated from tiredness.

Staggering and yawning to the cars where they piled in and drove the short distance to the airport.

Elijah had already booked their seats on the first flight to New Orleans, due to depart at eight am, they had an hour to make their way through security with several acts of compulsion to hide the suspicious facts that they weren't carrying any luggage and were without identification.

Caroline had a moment of humour when Klaus decided to make things easier for himself by hiding his British accent and instead adopting a mid-western American drawl to get him past the TSA.

They end up at Vito's Market, pushing three tables together and making full use of the breakfast buffet, the humans grabbing two or three plates at a time and the vampires filling themselves up on food to try and ignore their hunger. Caribou coffee was next and Klaus ordered the frothiest, most sugar-filled drink he could find on the menu, added an extra couple of flavours to the mix and then dared Elijah to drink it. The eldest Original surrendered with noted reluctance, took one gulp and then struggled to swallow.

Through this moment of levity however, they kept looking over their shoulders, trying to locate anyone acting suspiciously in their surrounding area. Anyone who could be a vampire hunter.

Caroline wondered how long it would be until they felt safe again.

* * *

Katherine Pierce was waiting for them when they landed.

Not even in the arrival terminal or the luggage area- not that they had anything to declare- but at the actual gate, wearing a black lace bodycon dress and matching peep toe cut out heels.

As always she looked stunning, dangerous and sexual but Caroline could see how pale her face looked in the morning light and her eyes flew right over their heads to Elijah, her shoulders dropping with relief as she cut a path through the tourists, not even stepping around them but expecting them to get out of her way- and they did, the expression on her face warned them not to mess with her.

She caught them just as they stepped out into the hall and grabbed her fiancé, pulling him down for a fiercely passionate kiss that had the rest of them averting their gazes.

When they broke apart Katherine was staring at her lover with an intensity that made Caroline quiver,

"If you _ever_ pull something like that again" she warns him in a low, firm tone,

"I'll kill you myself"

He gives her a tender smile and kisses her forehead, "I love you too"

She steps back and takes in the rest of them, giving Stefan and Damon a nod

"Welcome to New Orleans"

Caroline smiled and followed Klaus as he led the way out of the airport, clearly eager to get back to the French Quarter. Just over twenty-four hours ago she had rushed through the doors of this airport, determined to get home. Now she hesitates over the threshold, Klaus stopping on the pavement and turning back to her expectantly.

This was it. This was the first step into her new life.

She inhaled, squared her shoulders and moved forward. 

END OF BOOK ONE

* * *

A/N- So I've decided to split this story into two, maybe three sections to make it easier for me and to distinguish between the different story lines and handle the characters as needed.

For those of you disappointed by lack of Klaroline smut- check out my two one-shots Bad Girls Don't and Bad Boy's Don't. For Kalijah fans check out my series Moving In. For Delena or Stelena fans- you're out of luck I'm afraid.


	16. Book Two- Prologue

A/N- And I'm back! Hi Everyone, Happy New Year!

So I'm hoping someone out there wants to help me by making pictures for my stories, or set up a tumblr page where I can post my stories?

PM me if you're interested.

Now this is just a short prologue and I'll have the next chapter up asap.

* * *

BEGINNING OF BOOK TWO

PROLOGUE

_Le Coeur de Jardin- Garden District_

_His world was one of shadows and darkness._

_Air._

_That was his one comprehensible thought._

_He needed air._

_He couldn't breathe!_

Elijah awoke with a strangled, silent gasp. His body shooting up in the bed as he struggled to get air into his lungs. His left hand pressed hard against his chest where his long dead heart lay, frantically searching for the slow rhythm that had kept him alive for centuries.

It was there but he couldn't breathe.

His right hand clutches his throat, trying to feel any blockage that would be preventing the air from reaching his lungs- nothing.

His eyes dart to his right where he sees the chocolate curls cascading across the pillow and the steady rise and fall of his fiancées back.

Katerina is breathing.

Perhaps she has taken all the air in the room?

For all her beauty, wit and joie de vivre she can be quite selfish sometimes.

He shakes his head to clear himself of that stupid thought and his eyes catch on the silver handle across the room.

The door handle leading to the rooftop.

Quickly he climbs from their bed and uses vampire speed to cross the wooden floorboards to the glass door, he pulls it open and steps barefoot onto the gravel covered roof.

The sky is roiling above him, flashes of white amidst the angry purple clouds and the distant roll of thunder.

He can feel the electricity prickling the hairs on his arms the rapidly cooling wind brushing his bare chest. He ignores this, he ignores everything in favour of standing on the very edge of the rooftop, gripping the black ironwork railing in his hands and crushing the metal as he tears it from the holding.

He can't breathe.

Why can't he breathe?

Perhaps he has forgotten how?

He is not suffocating. He is dead, he does not need oxygen in his lungs to survive but it is preferable.

Most vampires choose to continue breathing after they have transitioned out of sheer habit and because it was easier for the stolen blood in their system to be oxygenated. It required less feeding that way.

Focusing on the last medical textbook he read. _Grey's Anatomy _1918 and recalls the passage on the human lungs.

Inhalation, his diaphragm should be tightening- yes he can feel it doing so, increasing the space in his chest cavity for his lungs to expand. Now, the air needed to enter via his nostrils and mouth, down his windpipe and into his lungs, from where it would pass through his bronchial tubes and finally reach the alveoli.

Exhalation- his diaphragm relaxing and the intercostal muscles would be reducing the space in his chest cavity which would force the air out of his lungs and windpipe and through his nose and mouth.

Inhalation. Exhalation…Inhalation…Exhalation.

He knows his body well. He can feel every moment of this process. He can sense that his lungs are working and the space in his chest increasing and lessening.

He is breathing.

So why does he feel as though he can't breathe?

Above him the heavens open with a fury.

A torrent of rain falls down upon him, smacking against his bare skin, soaking his hair and drenching his grey silk pyjama pants, sticking to the skin of his legs as the force of the rain drives him to his knees.

He can see the water hitting the green grass three floors down, he can see when the water freezes into hail and begins bouncing off the earth, hitting the statues in the garden.

Perhaps he should follow the rain down? Tumble off the roof and land on the earth like a fallen angel?

Perhaps the momentary death would bring back the foolish sensation of life?

"_Elijah_?"

He can hear Katerina's musical voice calling him from their room, she's lingering in the doorway shivering against the cold. She calls him again, troubled this time, she knows he can hear her and is choosing not to respond.

"Elijah, come inside!"

It is not a request. She is centuries younger than him, infinitely less powerful and her position in their world is dependent on his own and yet she orders him to return to her side.

The heaven unleash new fury now, lightening racing across the sky, making its momentary mark on the world, casting everything in brilliant light before the thunder chases it away with its ominous growl.

How easy it would be to go over.

There is a sigh of irritation, gentle in contrast to the angry world. The stirring of gravel and the smack of wet hair against skin.

A tender hand, warm and smooth, lays on his shoulder, the thumb caressing the dead skin, willing it back to life.

Tormented eyes are raised to meet hers, seeing nothing of the annoyance and hatred she should be feeling, instead he is shown grace and all-forgiving love.

And now, he can finally feel the air racing into his body.

With a moan of anguish at the pain and delight at the same sensation, he fell forward and she gripped him tightly with one hand, the other clinging to the railing left so that he wouldn't topple them both over the edge. He presses his head against her naked stomach and she cradles him against her,

"It is okay" she whispers, as he wraps his arms around her waist, "I have you, you're safe"

The hail retreats but the wind and rain is still buffeting them.

He doesn't fear for himself, he knows he is damned but he doesn't want to take Katerina over the edge with him.

With slow deliberate movements he climbs to his feet, lifting her with him and she holds onto his shoulders as he carries them back inside.

* * *

_Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 - French Quarter_

"Well?"

Celeste answered with a shriek of frustration, turning over the wooden table with the chalk markings and burnt herbs. Only by sheer miracle was Francesca able to reach out and snap up the small vial of rehydrated blood before it hit the floor.

"Are you _insane_?!" she demands, clutching the precious item in her hand and turning on the still panting witch,

"It cost us the lives of nine witches to get us this blood! We can't just go out and get more"

Celeste snorted and spun around, showing the woman her back as she paced to the window of the large tomb, staring out into the stormy night sky,

"It wasn't supposed to rain tonight" she commented, sneering at the rain as if it was to blame for her failure, "And Katherine wasn't supposed to be there"

Francesca curses the woman for her stupidity. Witches were far too heavily reliant on their magic, letting such attributes as logic and forethought to fall by the wayside.

"I told you, Katherine and Elijah spend every night together" she snaps, too frustrated to even enjoy the envy on the witches face,

"They won't even go to bed without each other, did you really think that Katherine wouldn't _notice_ if he jumped off the roof?"

"It's barely one in the morning!" Celeste paces across the room and holds up the antique watch, shoving it in Francesca's face,

"And you didn't tell me that she had gone back to the Garden District!"

"Because, as I've told you all week…" she stresses that statement, pointedly reminding the witch

"We keep losing track of Katherine. She disappears for hours on end and we can't manage to find her or tail her successfully, I have my brothers on it but they can't risk her making them or we'll be getting a visit from Klaus"

"Your family has lived in this city for centuries" Celeste argues, "How hard is it to find one _human_ woman on this side of the damn river when she doesn't stray further than ten miles from the Quarter?"

Not that hard at all.

In theory, following Katherine Pierce should be one of the easiest tasks that Francesca has ever given her brothers. They know which car she drives, she always stands out in a crowd and they know her routine.

Morning she has breakfast with Elijah either at the Garden District or Bourbon St Manor. Mid-morning she's either having coffee with a friend or at a beauty salon. Lunch time she's at one of the many restaurants across the city with Elijah and afterwards they walk hand in hand back to the Bourbon St manor where she then leaves him to go run errands. These errands vary from shopping trips to information gathering, visiting the Cauldron to buy or sell supernatural weaponry or meeting with the various factions in the city. On a normal day she headed back to the family at around seven in the evening for dinner and stayed in for the night, or if there was an event, she would head out again and could be home any time between midnight and dawn.

Katherine Pierce was one of the most well-known socialites in the city and could be found just by checking to see which theatre, cinema or bar was the popular flavour of the month or holding a premier.

Yet, for the last month, the woman had managed to fall completely off the radar for hours at a time and nobody who was noticing could figure out why.

"Could she have a secret lover do you think?" Francesca suggested, noting the vicious gleam in Celeste's eyes,

"If she's hiding from us, she's hiding from the Originals as well"

As much as the idea tickled the vindictive witch, she shook her head in defeat,

"Even I don't think she could be that stupid"

"Find out her secret" Celeste demanded in a tone that sounded suspiciously like an order,

"Perhaps we can use it to destroy them both"

* * *

Cary Boyd couldn't remember the last time he'd had a decent nights' sleep.

Perhaps a decade ago when he'd managed to get the flu on his thirteenth birthday and pretty much spent the week unconscious?

Good times.

Of course to be able to sleep you needed to feel safe.

Hard to do when you were squatting in the Bayou where any creature that wasn't out to eat you was likely to be a werewolf who'd be mighty pissed if they found you on their land.

But they hadn't caught him yet.

And they probably weren't going to for a long time.

After losing Hayley, the Crescent pack was floundering. Cary knew that Jackson was stepping into the role of Alpha but he had very little power in New Orleans. Klaus had nothing more than a basic interest in the wolves, the camaraderie of one's own species but otherwise he was busy ruling the kingdom. Elijah Mikaelson treated werewolves as if they were rabid dogs and Katherine Pierce was no help whatsoever.

Erik had been a momentary beacon of hope for the werewolves but Raina wasn't letting anyone who wasn't him near the hybrid heir.

Like hell Cary was going to let the Crescent wolves claim Erik as their own, they hadn't even been able to keep their last Alpha from getting killed, why the hell should they be trusted with the most powerful wolf since before the Massacre?

He sighs with relief as the rain finally begins to let up.

For all the water resistant material and what-have-you on his camping equipment, there was still drops of water dripping into his freaking tent and the moisture on the sides drove him crazy.

For all his werewolf strength and pride, he sure hated camping in the freaking Bayou.

And now he'd have to get the fucking fire started again which meant going outside when he just wanted to lie on his sleeping bag, stare at the orange material above him and pray for some fucking sleep!

Which would be a lot easier if there wasn't somebody moving around his campsite.

Reaching for his gun, he tucked it into his pants before unzipping the tent and climbing out.

He spots her right away, she's staring at the rapidly reviving campfire- which Cary would take as a sign of friendship…

Except for the small fact that the flames were fucking black.

The entire fire was burning onyx black, the flames undulating slowly, bringing to mind a lava lamp as they stretched up and then sank back down again.

"The humans call this hellfire" the young woman says, lifting her head and giving him a polite smile in direct contrast to the magic she's performing. He ignores his every instinct screaming for him to run and edges closer, stopping when his skin erupts in goosebumps and he starts to shiver uncontrollably,

"It also burns cold" she adds unnecessarily, "But it has its uses"

In November?!

"Who the hell are you?" he demands, trying not to look weak as he crosses his arms to try and find a little heat in his freezing body,

"Scarlet Rose" she offered her name and then let the silence fill the tense void between them, so she was either pretty confident in her powers or didn't think he was a threat.

A gentle breeze rustles through the leaves of the tree above him and several drops of water land on his head, one going down the back of his neck and he wiggled at the unpleasant sensation,

"Sorry about the storm" she apologised casually and when he met her eyes he swore he could see the lightening and thunder in those depths,

"That was you?!" he splutters in surprise.

Fuck, she was powerful then.

She shrugs, "Had to be done, there were some witches who had to be interfered with"

Curiosity gets the better of him.

"And you're here because?" he prompts and she smirks,

"Because there's a war about to break out and rip the Quarter to shreds and I'm going to help you emerge from it alive with Erik Marshall-Mikaelson as your pack's heir" 

* * *

A/N- There we go.


	17. Annabelle I Caroline VIII Nadia I

A/N- Here we go everyone!

* * *

Annabelle Mason missed London.

London was a town that was made for snowy winters and holidays.

Washington D.C lacked the same charm as ancient city not the least because when the clocks struck five pm on the Friday afternoon the city became deserted as senators, congressmen, congressional aides, lobbyists and activists all moved heaven and earth to make it back to their hometowns.

Even the President himself had flown out for the holiday.

London was always filled to the brim with people and tourists every holiday, all those humans determined to immerse themselves in the beauty and glow of the gritty city, to see how it came alive under lights and decorations.

Annabelle Mason missed that, especially when she considered the fact that she likely wouldn't see England again before the New Year.

If she was lucky enough to be able to see it at all for the immediate future.

And she so _loved_ Christmas in her home country.

But she also loved the world not being ripped to shreds amidst supernatural warfare.

Which was why she was in Washington D.C in the first place.

As a rule, supernatural creatures tended to avoid the capital.

Not because they lacked any interest in politics but because there was an unwritten rule in their world that when it came to intelligence agencies, the greater distance between the two parties the better.

Only the biggest idiots would risk the CIA, FBI, or any other of those overfunded, delusions of grandeur weapon wielding fools getting knowledge of the supernatural world. At best, the supernatural community would find themselves being forced into service of these agencies to take part in issues that didn't concern them. At worst, there would be all out worldwide witch hunt that would lead to any and all creatures going underground for decades or centuries.

Which was why it was the perfect place for Annabelle Mason to reside. She knew that she could move about freely without being spied upon by anything not human and make her moves without having to worry about finding herself spelled or compelled.

Had she been even a few towns south she wouldn't have had that luxury.

Ever since the Original Family set up their kingdom in New Orleans, vampires all over the Americas had been raising their heads curiously and trying to determine where their futures lay. Without having to hide from Mikael or Esther, the Originals could finally rule the vampires as they saw fit and if Annabelle knew anything of politics and power, she figured that the werewolves would soon fall under the hybrid Niklaus as well.

This suited her plans perfectly.

The witches on the other hand- did not.

If Annabelle Mason had a penny for every time a witch had torn the balance of Nature to shreds in their deluded belief that they were serving it she would currently own the United States of America.

And the United Kingdom as well.

With a sigh of annoyance she sat back against the leather couch of her penthouse suite and waited for Jesse and Ashley to finally make their appearance.

It was another five minutes and another pot of tea put on to brew before the two of them finally made it to her door. They knock and enter reeking of cigarette smoke,

"Sorry" Ashley apologises quickly, "Traffic was obscene"

Annabelle accepts this with a nod, "And Salem?"

"Fucking freaking the hell out and arming for Armageddon" Jesse grouses, "Bonnie Bennett wouldn't even come out of her room to speak to me, just kept sobbing about how Jeremy's ditched his phone and Abigail Bennett wanted me to make something like a damn blood oath of loyalty"

Annabelle sighs and sits them down, "Well we expected as much when they failed. You don't piss off the Original family, attack them and their loved ones and then skip off into the sunset to feel safe again immediately and forever"

"Right…but unfortunately you also shouldn't be turning to a Plan B" he continues, drawing out his cigarette packet and slipping it back into his jacket when she gives him a pointed look,

"Which they are" he finishes.

"Do we know what it is yet?" she asks quickly but he only shakes his head, so Ashley speaks up,

"I've been working on Abigail Bennett" she reports dutifully, "However, whatever's coming next I don't think she knows what it is. Celeste has pretty much ditched them at this point, which is fair because I don't think they're going to be of any more use to her but I'm going to have a hard time infiltrating the New Orleans witches"

"You won't be able to" Annabelle tells her, clicking her fingers in frustration, "And even if you could it'd be too risky to send you there. Klaus and Katherine Pierce have spies all over the city, they could make you and trace you back to us"

Her two agents go silent as they ponder this dilemma. They can't risk heading to New Orleans but they can't risk being in the dark about whatever was coming next.

"All we know is that whatever Celeste has planned required Elijah's blood" Jesse offers weakly and she shrugs,

"Well, if the witches want Elijah, they'll have to go through Katherine Pierce to get him and that ought to drastically reduce their numbers"

She hands them the dossiers containing their next missions and then allows them a few hours respite. After the debacle in Mystic Falls she is confident that Caroline and Bonnie wouldn't be wondering where Jesse was these holidays or trying to contact him.

And thankfully, with all the supernatural creatures whose survival she was counting on in the French Quarter celebrating Thanksgiving together she knew they would be safe.

Or as safe as anyone born in Mystic Falls could ever hope to be.

* * *

"Holy _freaking_ Hell!"

Rarely was Stefan Salvatore in complete agreement with his brother over anything that wasn't their immediate survival, the current state of the American education system or Elena's welfare but this time…this time Damon's outburst mirrored his thoughts exactly.

But Caroline Forbes is his best friend so he determinedly adopts a light-hearted, positive tone,

"I think it's nice" he tries, earning a stare from Damon that clearly questions his sanity, "It's festive"

"It looks like she got Martha Stewart on a cocaine bender and set her loose with the colour orange compelled into her brain" he snaps, taking in the Bourbon St manor

"Klaus must be whipped as hell if he allowed this"

"Klaus is nothing of the sort"

Both brothers jump as Klaus emerges from the shadows of one of the pillars in the courtyard,

"I simply listened reasonably to Caroline's suggestion that a festive holiday might be of comfort to your poor, homeless and traumatised souls as you drink all my top shelf liquor"

He flashes in front of Damon Salvatore and gives him the same smile he typically wore just before dead bodies started piling up,

"Now she has gone to a lot of effort and you are going to politely notice every single detail and compliment her on her hard work…or you are going to spend the weekend buried underground behind a brick wall in the prison that was left over from the previous king's era, it's quite a barbaric place" he chuckles good humouredly,

"Even by my standards but it does the job, so what shall it be?"

Damon takes in the large gold and orange ribbons gracing the upstairs gallery railing and the hollowed out pumpkins filled with seasonal wildflowers sitting on the banisters. Thanksgiving wreaths, which Damon hadn't even been aware were even a _thing_ were nailed to all the entry doors of the manor.

"This looks great" he says with a tight, fake smile on his face, "Absolutely freaking awesome"

Klaus claps him on the shoulder, "Good man…now don't forget to have a second helping of the pumpkin pie for desert, I hear the chocolate marshmallows and salt caramel ice-cream we're serving with it is to _die_ for"

Stefan tries to hide his amusement at how green his brother's face is growing at the thought of all that sugar and starch.

"Happy Thanksgiving" he snickers before heading off in search of Elena.

* * *

No-one had really felt like celebrating Thanksgiving this year, forced out of their homes into the world with nothing but what they carried into their pockets they hadn't felt very thankful.

However, Caroline had been determined to cheer everyone up and after she'd asked Klaus if he had any preference for the holiday- he didn't as the Originals didn't celebrate and considered the pilgrims genocidal monsters- had taken it upon herself to get everyone into the holiday mood.

And she figured if they weren't feeling happy or grateful at the moment, perhaps if she flooded their senses with pumpkin, pumpkin spice and folk rock they would be able to fake it until they made it.

She had lived by this rule throughout her teenage years of anxiety and inability to ever say the right thing, constant second place and rejection.

Just because you felt like you were falling apart inside didn't mean that you should let the world know.

She reminds herself of this as she arrives at Le Coeur Jardin, leaving the car Klaus had loaned her- a modern Porsche which she'd found in the underground garage at Bourbon St and he'd apparently hadn't even realised he owned- in the driveway as she nervously approaches the house.

She unlocks the front door and steps in cautiously, even though she knows that Klaus was at the manor protecting his liquor stash from Jeremy and Damon, Elijah was at a symposium, Rebekah was off somewhere not answering her phone and Katherine had simply left a note on the fridge that morning stating

'BRB- out making questionable life choices'

Surprisingly nobody questioned this six word statement, even though they all figured she was doing a lot more than she let on.

Whatever. Caroline had other things to worry about.

Taking a deep breath she heads up the stairs to the wing where Klaus' bedroom was and where two doors down, Baby Erik's nursery was situated.

Tentatively she knocked on the door and waited to hear the babysitter call 'Enter'

She fixed a cheerful smile to her face, "Hey" she greeted, "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Raina Lakes raised her head and nodded appreciatively, returning the sentiment. The young raven-haired woman was sitting on the hardwood floor with Erik, crayons and paper surrounding them,

"I'm trying to teach him how to make hand turkeys" she explains to Caroline as she cautiously sits down, "But he absolutely refuses to colour with anything other than blue"

Caroline shrugs, "Cold turkeys then?"

Raina smirks, "Maybe next year we'll get some defrosted turkeys"

Caroline notes that Raina is speaking of the future as if she'll still be babysitting Erik in a year even though she probably has other plans and isn't studying childcare at Tulane.

Then again, there were very few professions that paid her as highly as Klaus unwittingly did through his lack of knowledge regarding babysitting rates and being far too lazy to find out.

And the woman is clearly devoted to Erik. She raises her head now and regards Caroline curiously,

"Are you looking for Klaus?" she asks, "Because I think he's…"

"Uh actually," Caroline tosses a smile at Erik as he raises his head and reaches for the navy crayon,

"I'm here to see Erik…he and I haven't really had much time together since I've been in town and I saved his life when he was kidnapped by…when he was kidnapped last year. I even took care of him while Klaus was busy re-growing his internal organs and skin and he seemed to like me then"

Raina takes all this in with a placid expression and then nods, "Okay, well…it's time for his morning tea anyway so I'll go get that ready"

Caroline exhales as she and Erik are left alone and she turns to the baby as he looks up from his drawing to see Raina's absence and reaches one pudgy arm for an aqua blue crayon.

He's grown so much since Caroline first met him in Mystic Falls, he was nearly two years old now, his hair was starting to lighten and he had Hayley's eyes but his mannerisms, the way he held his head and watched people was all Klaus.

And so was the ridiculous number of crayons he had.

"So…how's things been with you?" she asked nervously and he burbled, mumbling some words which she couldn't understand,

"Well, I'm great, well…I'm _good_. I mean my friends and I lost _everything_ and have to start over again but you know…it could be worse"

Erik looks down at the turkey Raina had drawn and that he was colouring in, he holds out the crayon for her to take, his eyes wide with innocence and hope.

Touched, Caroline takes the crayon and drops it on her lap, "Thank-you sweetie…anyway I'm here today because you and I are probably going to be seeing each other a lot now that I'm dating your daddy and I was thinking that we should be friends"

She receives a non-committal hum in response and the first turkey is pushed aside so that a new one can start being coloured.

"Alright" she sighs and looks around before settling her eyes on his bowed head, his little ear shells were so cute that Caroline couldn't resist flicking one gently with her finger.

Erik chortled and beamed at her, "Mo" he babbled, holding out his arms and triumphantly she embraced him,

"Okay" she gives Erik a kiss and flicks his ear again as he squeals in delight,

"So I get your approval and you get hugs, we good?"

"If he was smart he'd hold out for hugs _and_ kisses"

Caroline gasps and wheels around in surprise to see Klaus leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed and a smarmy smirk on his face,

"How long have you been standing there?" she demands and he can barely bring himself not to laugh,

"Long enough to know that you use the same bargaining methods on my son as you do on me"

She rolls her eyes but can't fight her smile as Erik's eyes light up when he sees his father, a look mirrored on Klaus' face as he scoops him up in his arms and kisses his forehead lovingly,

She can't get used to seeing Klaus like this so paternal and mature as he unthinkingly pulls the crayon out of Erik's mouth before it gets eaten.

And she's still a college student sorting out her majors.

"I…_uh_…" she stumbles and takes a breath, allowing herself a moment to get her thoughts together so she doesn't start babbling away,

"I just figured I'd come say hi to Erik, get to know him a little more now that he and I are going to be seeing each other all the time"

"You will" he allows, pausing to listen to his son as he points to one of the turkeys and babbles,

"If you're going to be my girlfriend"

His voice is cold with a hint of warning and she frowns, blinking as she tries to figure out why,

"Did I...do something wrong?" she asks nervously, looking about the room "I mean…his nanny trusted me to be left alone with him and I saved his life once so…"

"Hayley will _always_ be his mother Caroline" he interrupts her firmly, "She suffered so much to bring him into the world and loved him with all her heart, I owe it to her to have him cherish her memory and to never have him call another woman mother"

She actually laughs with relief and the absurdity of his fears, "_Seriously_! Klaus, I'm not trying to worm my way into Erik's life or trick him into thinking I'm his mother, but I am going to be your girlfriend…for the foreseeable future…and I just wanted him to get used to me"

Klaus himself looks reassured by her outburst which has her frowning and leaning back on her heels,

"Hang on…how many women have tried to get in your bed via your son?"

With angelic innocence the Original hybrid looks at the Dr Seuss Cat in the Hat clock on the wall,

"Oh look, it's almost time for lunch"

In one smooth movement, he's on his feet and sweeping out of the room as Caroline hastily gathers the turkey drawings and follows him with a furious glare,

"Klaus…don't you walk away from me, I want names and numbers dammit!"

* * *

"Do you think Caroline will be satisfied…"

"No" Elena interrupts before Katherine can even finish the sentence, "She will know and she will glare at you with unending disappointment, keep firing them up"

Rebekah comes into the dining room and sees the two doppelgangers lighting what had to be the entire stock of orange candles in the French Quarter,

"Bloody hell" she snorts and sniffs with disdain at the pumpkin spice scented air,

"Is Caroline trying to have us spied on from space? _Marie Antoinette_ used less candles for her dinner parties"

One of the eternally young, pretty faces shot up to defend the blonde socialite, her brunette hair glimmering in the candlelight,

"Marie Antoinette was horrified about the heinous contrast of wealth in Versailles and poverty in Paris" Katherine retorted with an artistic wave of the taper,

"Caroline however, is not being faced with entire rooms furnished in silver and gold or diamonds being bought at the expense of the national treasury so if she wishes to have three hundred and ninety-one candles lighting up this dreary compound she can have them"

Elena frowns, "You seriously counted every candle in the house?"

Petrova shakes her head, "God no, but it's been three hundred and ninety one years since the first thanksgiving meal and I figure Caroline would celebrate something like that"

Rebekah only snorts, "Well…you two enjoy playing nice despite the numerous times you've both tried to kill each other, I'm going to find someone worthy of my time"

"Or you could, you know, help?" Katherine suggests, "Seeing as you're going to be enjoying this lunch with the rest of us"

"I don't do work suited for peasants" she retorts before turning on her heel and leaving with her nose in the air.

She hears a disgruntled sigh and then the click of stilettoes on hardwood floor,

"Rebekah!" Katherine caught up to her but didn't dare grab her,

"What?!" the Original demanded huffily, already bored taunting her brother's temporary infatuation,

Katherine rolled her eyes, "Let's be honest" she announced decisively, "You hate me, you hate Caroline but you hate me more because you figure I'm less worthy of royal status than her. You think that I am undeserving of your brother and want me gone. However I'm not going anywhere so we need to play nice"

"_We _don't need to do anything" Rebekah snapped, "You forget that my brothers and I have been together for a thousand years…I could kill you now and in one hundred years Elijah would forgive me and move on to his next brunette trollop, the only thing here that shall remain unchanged is how much your presence irritates me"

Katherine holds her head high and regards her with pitying eyes, "Elijah had me brought back from the dead and asked me to marry him...Is it hard being you? Having all this power and prestige but with absolutely _no-one_ willing to love you at night?"

She had someone once.

She had loved Marcel dearly and the Originals had celebrated their first Thanksgiving with him when he'd been just a child.

And Katherine had killed him.

The resounding slap sent Katherine's head bouncing off the wall and she lost her footing, falling to her knees and bringing her hands up to defend herself from further attack,

"_Rebekah!_"

Both women turned to see Elijah's form in the doorway, the sun behind his back casting him into shadow, when he steps into the hall Rebekah can see the deep circles under his eyes and the tightly drawn skin across his face,

"I'll thank-you not to ruin this holiday with unnecessary violence" he scolds her as he scoops Katherine up and sets her on her feet only to have her sway and lean against him,

"If you can't behave yourself then please remove yourself"

Her eyes widen with hurt and unable to speak, she storms out of the house but not before she has the satisfaction of hearing Elijah berate his doxy for having picked the fight in the first place.

But when she stepped onto Bourbon St she realised that she now had the rest of the day to fill and nothing to do.

She heads to the very end of the street and dithers uncertainly before her phone buzzes with a message.

'_Hey Happy Thanksgiving! Any plans for dinner?'_

Oliver.

Her lips curl into a smile as she imagines spending the day in bed with the voracious werewolf.

Her brothers could play chivalrous boyfriends all they liked, she would be enjoying herself with a nice man who wouldn't just rock her world but would listen to her afterwards.

Perhaps that would ease the pain of her memories.

* * *

To say Caroline had over catered for the event was to state the overwhelmingly obvious.

Camille had barely managed a slice of turkey after all the delicious entrees, Matt and Jeremy were only still eating because they had the consumption habits of young men whilst Father Kieran was trying to figure out the best way to package all the inevitable left overs to donate to the poor.

And dessert hadn't even come out yet.

The table was creaking precariously under the three oversized turkeys, sweet potato casserole, butternut squash gratin, enough mashed potato to feed Northern Ireland, candied yams and corn pudding.

Caroline sat back in her chair with an air of satisfaction as she sipped the two hundred year old red wine Klaus had stolen from a queen. Beside her Elena was ignoring the turkey in favour of the roast eggplant which Caroline knew she had a weird obsession with and across from her Katherine was fussing over her food, trying everything once and then offloading it onto Elijah's plate only to change her mind and help herself to his servings as well. He was watching her with a gaze of tender amusement but Caroline couldn't help but notice anxiously that he wasn't eating anything, just taking small sips of the brandy in his hand.

Did he not like her cooking?

She fought the urge to say something and thankfully Raina chose that moment to speak up,

"So, is anyone doing the Black Friday shopping tomorrow?" she asks, seizing on an easy topic that was also appropriate for little Erik's ears,

"Shopping?" Katherine perks up, "Are we going shopping?"

Elena rolls her eyes, "Katherine what could you possibly need to buy? I saw your photos from Paris, do you even have room left on your credit card?"

Katherine smirked, "Please I have a lingerie budget the likes of which could finance the invasion and overthrow of a mid-level dictatorship"

"And don't even get her started on her shoe collection" Elijah muttered darkly as he sipped his brandy, the veins in his eyes starting to glow red.

Caroline's trying to figure out a way to politely offer him one of her blood bags without freaking out the humans at the table when Katherine reaches over and squeezes his thigh and his eyes return to their normal colouring.

Katherine looked up expectantly, "So who wants to go shopping?"

"No-one is going shopping right now!" Caroline snaps, "We're all going to stay here and have dessert like normal, social people"

"Are you sure?" Katherine clarifies, "Because I know the fastest routes to all the major stores that are open today and I have Elijah's credit card right here" she flicks the black card up between two fingers and Elijah once again pats himself down to find that his wallet is missing.

"Maybe you could stop picking my pocket darling?" Elijah suggested as she tucked the card back into her jacket,

"Maybe you shouldn't have died then" she snipes and he sighs,

"That was one time and I didn't die"

She sniffs and ignores him, turning to Camille to discuss the impending chaos of the sales and Caroline turns back to Elena,

"So…" she asks nervously and swallows,

"Are you three all packed?"

Stefan nods over Elena's head, "Just about…Damon compelled a mechanic to head back home and steal the Camaro, it should be here in a few days and there's some people packing up the house for us" he clears his throat and turns to her mother, "I uh…had them go to your place too, they're boxing everything that looks valuable or treasured and shipping it here"

Liz gives him a grateful smile. While Matt and Jeremy were getting ready for New York and the Salvatore's and Elena were using one of the spare rooms in Le Coeur Jardin for storage before setting off on their road trip, Liz was still figuring out her path.

Klaus had already offered to compel the sheriff of any town she wished into early retirement but so far, Caroline's mother was insisting on going about everything in a human and above board manner. Not that Caroline minded her obstinacy, every day she remained there was a chance that she might choose to stay.

A girl could hope.

When Caroline is dumping all the dishes from the main course in the kitchen, an old long since abandoned part of the compound that the Originals had clearly forgot existed, Elena sneaks her hand into hers as she turns to grab the pies from the fridge,

"Hey Care," she whispers as the skies once again turn grey with the threat of rain,

"Yeah?" she queries with half a mind on the ice-cream in the freezer,

"Just…" her best friend sighs and shakes her head, "I'm probably being paranoid but…I want you to be _careful_ okay? I just…have this weird feeling…We've never been apart before and I'm worried about being so far away and not being able to look out for you"

"Hey" Caroline laughs at Elena's adorable- if not slightly deluded- belief that she needed protecting and watching over by her best friend,

"I'll be fine, but I promise to call and text you all the time"

Instantly free from worry Elena chuckled and pulled her into a fierce hug,

"Okay…I love you Caroline"

"I love you too Elena"

* * *

Nadia stood with her arms crossed at the window of the dark room, gazing out into the stormy evening as the city before her was soaked by the heavens.

In the doorway, Giacomo Farnese hovered, waiting for her to acknowledge him and when she did not he only smiled.

He was too in love with the mother not to adore the daughter.

"I'm sure Katherine will be back again shortly" he offers by way of comfort.

Comfort Nadia does not need. Whilst she understands that today is an American holiday, it is not one she recognises or understands and therefore, she does not feel the same pang of loneliness and misery she'd felt every birthday and Christmas when she'd marked another year without having discovered her family.

"There is something strange about this rain" she comments, her skin tingling as she stares into the rapidly approaching night.

She couldn't place her finger on it exactly…perhaps it was the suddenness of the downpour, the sheer difference between the rain in New Orleans and the rain in Prague or perhaps it was the strange part of her that had always seemed to sense when something was amiss but this weather unsettled her.

Of course, it could be something else unsettling her altogether.

Such as the knowledge that she had resided in New Orleans for over a month now and her mother still kept her existence a secret, refusing to bring her home to meet Elijah, asking her to stay hidden as much as possible, suggesting in her unspoken way that they were not safe.

That she was not safe.

Katerina Petrova was betrothed to the second most powerful man on the planet and allies with the first. She was Princess of a kingdom where her enemies were too weak to be any threat or completely and utterly destroyed.

So what was she so afraid of?


	18. Caroline IX

A/N- So I'm counting this as a half chapter because it's word heavy but story light. It wasn't supposed to be like this but I went off on a Klaroline tangent and before I knew it was at five thousand words which is as long as you can make a chapter before you lose reader focus.  
As always follow me on at for exclusive previews and Klaroline smut.

TW- Mentions of Sexual Abuse

* * *

In the middle of the night, Caroline awoke with a start and for a moment couldn't move as the sensation of falling back to earth, back to her bed disoriented her.

At least until she realised that she wasn't alone.

Something was in the room with her.

Something was in the _bed_!

Having slept alone for most of her life, she was still getting used to the loss of solitary repose and could wake up at strange moments with all her senses on alert for this intruder.

Which had often led to frightened gasps and Klaus being woken up by a defensive punch, to the point where he had forcibly relaxed himself so that his instincts wouldn't kick in and he wouldn't…

_Oh_.

Her frantic, terrified brain finally manages to pull a bit of logic out of the swirl of chaos and she begins to relax, knowing that if something was coming for her, it'd have to go through Klaus first.

And even more likely…

"Klaus…?" Caroline whispers, turning her head to see his side of the bed empty, "Are you…?"

She's lying flat on her back and for the first time notices the large bulge under the duvet that couldn't possibly be her body.

And the blunt teeth nipping at her ticklish toes couldn't possibly be hers either.

Is it weird that by now she thinks she knows the feel of his teeth, that she knows line until the gap where the two eyeteeth have been pushed back to accommodate the double fangs?

She relaxes but tenses up again in delightful anticipation as lips ghost along under her knee and up her thigh, pressing briefly into her belly button before she jolted him with her knee, hit his shoulder and Klaus' head emerged from underneath the duvet, his face the picture of bewilderment and she laughed,

"Seriously!" she demanded, "I thought you were a monster!"

He shrugged with absolutely no apology whatsoever, "You aren't wrong"

She rolls her eyes and tries to glare even as she was still laughing, "I meant an evil monster coming to kill the blonde cheerleader"

He tilts his head slightly, the duvet falling back to expose his blonde hair, "Are we role playing?"

Role playing.

A concept that was kind of lost on the Original brothers.

One of the first shopping trips she'd taken with Katherine had ended in an adult store with the doppelganger buying toys that had left Caroline unable to look Elijah in the eyes for days afterward. Curious, Caroline had begun browsing through some of the costumes available before Katherine had shut it down,

"_No point" she'd told her, leading her over to the lingerie section, "They were born long before most of those fantasies came about and don't understand the rest. Naughty school girl, nurse, nun, police officer- well, you probably wouldn't choose that costume anyway- but trust me, I'm speaking from experience, he'd appreciate the effort but it'd go over his head" _

Oh well. He understood the concept of sexy lingerie well enough…although Caroline had been forced to put her foot down and start implementing sex bans whenever he ripped the material off her.

Victoria's Secret was expensive.

"No" she shook her head, "I actually thought there was a monster coming to kill me"

He smirked, "Sorry love, I won't be that merciful"

He pulls back, clearly determined to duck back under the covers and she laughs again, resting her head on the pillow with a smile as Klaus eased her thighs apart and settled between them, his breath warm and welcoming against her vagina, causing her to squirm as the sensation had her body responding, desire pooling and arousal starting to make her wet.

Klaus breathed again and when he knew she would be stimulated opened her with two gentle fingers before his tongue darted out and teased her folds, causing a burst of sensation that had her closing her eyes in anticipated delight.

Caroline whimpered and shifted her body, Klaus splaying a hand over her stomach to keep her in place as his fingers kept her delicate folds spread so that there was no barrier between his hot tongue and her clitoris. She reached down and stroked the golden curls as his head moved under the duvet, tracing the shell of his ear and resisting the urge to hold his head in place and keep him trapped there for the rest of the night.

His tongue delved inside her moving with the skill Caroline had long since become wonderfully accustomed to and when he moved up to suck and then bite her clit she gasped and moaned as her orgasm rushed through her. She arched her back and her eyes opened with surprise as she felt a tugging on her thigh, suddenly she wasn't seen the ornate canopy of the bed but had been yanked down underneath the heavy duvet and was immersed in darkness.

Except for two glowing, golden eyes.

"Someone fed you after midnight didn't they?"

That particular pop culture reference was lost on him but she knew he'd grasped the concept when he growled and his heavy hand reached up and squeezed her neck gently before he darted away, the duvet falling on her face as below her, hands spread her legs apart as far as they can comfortably go and hold her there.

She's quivering with anticipation, thighs wet with her arousal and her blood rushing through her body after the orgasm. Her world had shrunk to this darkness, this heavy silk on her head, her breath short in the confined space and is the only sound aside from the drumming of her heartbeat in her ears. One breath, two…three.

She screamed in surprise and pleasure as he suddenly slammed into her, his penis penetrating her to the very base and she moaned at the sensation and her walls clenched, trying to hold him inside her as he quickly pulled out and she couldn't feel him between her spread legs, couldn't sense him until he was thrusting into her hard and fast, leaving her breathless.

God this was erotic.

It was like being fucked by a ghost, or a demon.

Or the Devil himself.

She surrendered to the act as she fantasised about Klaus coming upon her in a haunted house, or that she was an angel imprisoned in Hell.

Her hands are tangled in the sheets beneath her and she cries out at one particularly fierce thrust that almost borders on pain but she doesn't feel anything beyond the thrill of the forbidden and the hint of danger.

Her orgasms come down upon her so quickly that she almost can't tell them apart and when he explodes within her with a triumphant shout, they soak the sheets under them with their pleasure, the duvet is lifted as Klaus crouches over her body and then falls back down when he flops down atop her, careful not to hurt her but draping his sweaty body across hers while he continues to tremble with his release. She runs a flat hand down his back and rests it on his arse cheek, holding him against her while they catch their breath, idly wondering if this was a one-act show or if they were going to go all night. She mentally shrugs, she'd find out soon enough.

She's come a long way to reach the point where she can fully submit to someone sexually, where she can let Klaus hold her body and bring them both to pleasure without the fear that he'll enslave her, grow bored or angry and decide to use her as he wished.

* * *

Shortly after Christmas, in the days before the New Year began, Klaus had taken Caroline on a two day trip to Baton Rouge, they'd seen some of the sights, enjoyed a nice lunch at a restaurant and brought some bagged blood for her to drink before she'd walked him to an abandoned, neglected park deep in the suburbs, sat him down and finally explained to him the reasons for her anxiety and occasional panic attacks during sex.

Klaus wasn't an idiot of course, he'd long since suspected that she could have been a victim of rape but to suspect and to have confirmation had been two very different things.

He had been angry, because he was Klaus Mikaelson and when he didn't know how to act he lashed out.

Not at her obviously but the closest tree had endured a rather vicious removal of branches and violent beating. He'd then taken a deep breath, come back and stood in front of her, he'd cupped her face in his hands and told her that this changed nothing for him and that he was so proud of her for not letting this bad experience ruin her life.

His voice had been so gentle, his touch so soft that Caroline's eyes had fluttered closed as she rested her cheek in his hand and nearly answered without thinking when he asked for the name of her attacker.

She'd shaken her head but he hadn't got the message, trying to cajole the name out of her until she refused and shut down.

She had predicted this, Klaus Mikaelson Decision-Making 101, if something or someone hurt one of the few people he loved, he killed it.

Plain and simple.

But Caroline was not going to have lives ruined so Klaus could feel as though he'd lived up to his Alpha Male status by protecting her years after the fact.

He'd grown close to cruel then, telling her that if she loved him as she claimed then she would give him the names of those who'd hurt her.

She'd walked away and wandered the streets for two hours before Katherine had rung her, obviously under duress to check that she was okay.

Caroline had explained the situation and could almost hear the doppelganger shrugging on the other end of the line,

"_I could have told you that was going to happen"_ she'd responded with little sympathy,

"_He's an all-powerful supernatural king and you gave him a situation where you were hurt and he couldn't stop it, so he wants to make things right by killing D-…the man and present his head to you on a silver platter" _

"That won't make me feel better" Caroline pointed out and Katherine sighed,

_"I know…are you afraid that it will happen again?" _

Was she?

Yes.

Logically she knew that Damon Salvatore would never rape her again, not now but there was still that fear that all survivors lived with.

It's happened to me once, what's to say it won't happen again?

It wouldn't be a man in a dark alleyway, or a roofie in a bar but what if…?

"Can I speak to Elijah?" she'd asked and Katherine had sighed,

_"Okay…but this'll take a minute, I'll have to untie him"_

"Oh God!" Caroline had shrieked, "Oh ewww! Seriously?!...Wait, where's Erik?"

Katherine scoffed, _"With Raina obviously, you think I'd babysit the miraculous little mistake?"_

She hears Elijah's muffled voice and Katherine sighing, _"Yeah, yeah I know…Erik is a gift not the accidental result of a drunken one night stand, lift your head my love"_

"_Cawowine"_ Elijah slurred his words, _"Jus a momen"_

She repressed the urge to shudder, "Massage your jaw and try again"

"_Thank-you my dear"_

She heard his bare feet against the wooden floorboards and the sound of a door shutting,

"_You wished to speak to me?"_ he inquired, _"I trust despite whatever foolish action my brother has probably committed that you are well?"_

Being spoken to in such a formal, polite manner had her calming down slightly and she almost felt bad when she asked the question,

"Elijah...Has Klaus ever…raped anyone?"

There was silence on the other end of the line before Elijah replied softly,

_"Has he threatened you or made you feel unsafe in any way?" _

"No" she assured him, "It's just…I need to know"

"_No"_ Elijah answered firmly, _"Not to my knowledge, never once in all our years have I ever heard him accused or suspected, nor has he ever given me any reason to believe that he would" _

Caroline released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. After all, when she had entered into this relationship with Klaus it was with the knowledge that he had one thousand years as a vampire behind him, many of those years spent with humanity trying its best to rip each other to shreds so whilst all the moments of history fascinated her, she had been trying to overlook the bloodier pages in the book, the shadows she were sure existed.

"_You should understand Caroline"_ Elijah continued, _"Most of Niklaus' human existence was spent being rendered powerless by Mikael. He knows what it feels like to have free will taken away and while he will have no qualm attacking his enemies physically and emotionally, to exert his power over someone sexually to invade them in this most personal manner…It's also a matter of pride I suppose"_ he muttered, now considering the matter academically, _"If a woman rejected him, he would go out and find pleasure with another, he wouldn't force his company where it wasn't wanted…in a sexual manner anyway"_

She'd thanked him and ended the call, looking up at the lilac evening sky and deciding to head back to the hotel. She had guessed that Klaus wasn't a rapist, if he had been then surely he would never have allowed her to refuse him for so long but still…to have confirmation of this fact had made her feel safe.

And that was the only thing that mattered.

Yes she had been raped and yes there was always the chance that it could happen again but what mattered is that she felt safe with Klaus.

She trusted him.

And he was waiting for her when she got back to the hotel room, pacing the tiny living area of the bed and breakfast she had insisted on because it was so quaint with the antique furniture and fresh flowers and the tiny television from the late nineties.

His head had shot up when she'd come in the door and he didn't resemble a human so much as a caged animal.

"Where have you been?!" he demanded, "It's been hours! I've been worried…"

"Shut up" she told him, pressing a finger to his lips which he glared at but stayed silent.

"I love you and I know that you love me too…No, you don't have to say it" she said when he opened his mouth, "And after the way you behaved today I don't want to hear it. I know your response to every bad thing is to lash out and kill it but you can't erase my history Klaus, you can only support me and understand where I'm coming from. You don't have to kill my rapist to make me feel safe because I feel safe with you, I know you'll protect me with your life if need be and do your best to ensure something like that never happens again"

"It won't ever happen again" he swears, his eyes cold as steel and she inwardly sighs, knowing this is the closest she'll get to an apology,

"I believe you"

* * *

In their tiny world under the duvet, Caroline felt Klaus stir atop her and his lips begin to kiss her shoulder and then her neck. She snickered at his predictability.

"Uh uh" She pushed him back by his forehead and giggled at the sight of his double fangs,

"Come on sweetheart" he whined and she shook her head,

"Here" her hands tangled in his hair she led him down to her stomach, he went with little grace and lots of grumbling but sank his fangs into her flesh, drinking deeply.

Ever since she'd come to New Orleans, Caroline had been experimenting with blood sharing, having Klaus drink from different places on her body so she could experience the different sensations. She'd even guided him to where her thigh met her vagina but the hybrid was not comfortable having his sharp fangs so near to such fragile skin.

But for the opportunity to blood share with Caroline he'd gladly endure being shuffled around her body like a temporary tattoo.

Especially when she'd suckle gently on his neck or wrist afterwards for his healing blood and then fall asleep curled up in his arms

* * *

"And this is the Liberal arts admin office, which if Klaus was a student here would have been burnt to the ground years ago and the ashes scattered to the four winds"

Caroline laughed at Cami's colourful statement, "I'm guessing you have issues with them?"

The older blonde rolled her eyes, "I had lit electives in my first year, no major subject clashes or anything, I just had to take my enrolment forms in…the bastards declared me AWOL _six_ times, I nearly ended up having my PHD application rejected because of them"

Caroline winced sympathetically and made a mental note to ignore her usual habit of asking politely first and just use compulsion straight off the bat.

It was the first day of February and Cami had offered to give Caroline a tour of Tulane University campus, helping her get ready for when she started classes in August.

She was continuing her drama major, transferring all her credit over from Whitmore College and already looking at the residence halls, even though the university was only a ten minute drive from the Garden District and maybe twenty minutes in traffic from Bourbon St.

An argument Klaus himself had made, telling her that it'd probably be faster for her to commute by car than on foot from a residence hall, and at _Le Coeur Jardin_ she'd have her own bathroom free of foot fungal diseases and a kitchen that wasn't riddled with black mould.

However, Caroline was still determined to have a normal college experience and that didn't include driving a Porsche or living in a multi-million dollar mansion or in a manor on Bourbon St with a bevy of unemployed, obscenely rich and even more stunningly beautiful immortals.

But her protests hadn't stopped Elijah fitting out a beautiful bedroom/study area for her just down the hall from Klaus bedroom in the mansion.

She'd admired the room and thanked him profusely but when she'd reminded him that she was living on-campus he'd got offended.

Caroline wasn't sure if it was just her or if it was because she was living with him on a more permanent basis but she had begun to notice just how cold Elijah was. The polite, friendly man from her two week sojourn was gone and in his place was an impatient older brother who always seemed annoyed with his siblings.

She shrugged internally, she was an only child, what did she know about how brothers and sisters functioned?

"Here is my favourite sun-soaked lawn" Cami waved her arm to encompass the rolling green expanse, "Perfect for sunbaking, studying or napping when you're completely hungover and can't leave campus because you've temporarily forgotten how"

Caroline laughed again and took a moment to appreciate just how good it felt to be carefree again.

It had been a hard four months for her.

She'd lost a friend in Bonnie, her home and the life she had known. Her mother had moved two hours away to a tiny Southern town and her best friend was now somewhere along Route Sixty-Six communicating with her via postcards or infrequent text messages.

It had shaken her to have her feet cut out from under her. To have been hunted and forced to seek shelter in New Orleans, not that she didn't enjoy being in the beautiful city but she had always figured that when she and Klaus started living together on a permanent basis, _if_…if they had started living together on a permanent basis, it would be her choice one hundred percent, not something affected by external factors.

She had wanted to come to him as an equal, not as a victim.

Still, she was here now and determined to make the most of it.

And it wasn't all bad, in fact, she was having a lot of fun.

She was becoming fast friends with Cami who was her favourite female in town on account of never having kidnapped or killed her. Although for all the enmity between them, Katherine was a lot of fun, taking her shopping, dancing, bar-hopping and introducing her to new experiences that Klaus would have never considered.

Just yesterday they'd gone to Katherine's favourite day spa and had been treated to a facial which she'd found out afterwards had included powdered diamonds and rubies in the paste.

Well…it sure had left her skin glowing.

Rebekah was still avoiding her, typically only turning up at the mansion around dinner time to say something snarky, grab some food and head out again. At first Caroline was worried that his sister's obvious dislike of her would cause trouble between her and Klaus but he didn't seem the least bit concerned and Rebekah clearly didn't like Katherine any more than she liked Caroline and she and Elijah were engaged.

Not that Caroline was getting married to Klaus.

No sir, she was not getting married until she was at least twenty-five.

Her phone beeps and she pulls it out, checking the screen before blushing.

She wonders if there's a bat signal that goes off somewhere every time she thinks about Klaus, or if they were just on the same wavelength. Either way he had texted her,

'_I hear that sex on campus is a thing' _

She smirks and rolls her eyes, catching Cami's attention and relaying the message to her. Cami just smirks and shrugs,

"Thousand year old supernatural, I wonder if he's had sex on a campus before?"

Sex talk with a girl. Now this was something Caroline had never enjoyed before, one of the downsides to having dated Matt and then Elena dating Damon, too few degrees of separation in their sex lives to make the conversation comfortable.

'_Cami wants to know if you've had sex on campus before?' _

She waited almost a minute before the reply came in,

'_Not in America and not with uniforms' _

With uniforms?

She's hitting speed dial before she even stops to think and he picks up immediately,

_"Hello sweetheart"_ he purrs into the phone, _"Where should I meet you?"_

"Are you watching porn on _my_ laptop?"

Caroline and the Mystic Falls refugees as Klaus had dubbed them had hit up an Apple store on their first day in town and stocked up on all the technology they could need. Caroline had bought a beautiful silver laptop top of the line which she'd then made the mistake of leaving to charge in the living room.

She'd quickly learnt that while the Original siblings understood that the privacy of handwritten journals was sacrosanct- at least for anyone who wasn't a blood relative- they had absolutely no idea about respecting personal ownership of technology and considered any fancy gadget communal property.

She'd found Klaus using her laptop to order art supplies online, Elijah had downloaded an entire season of a Danish political drama after his laptop had gone missing and Katherine had changed her homepage to the Neiman Marcus online shop and filled her shopping basket with new outfits which she called  
'New Caroline'.

So she had called them all into the kitchen and explained to them that laptops were just fancy journals, everyone had their own and stayed away from hers.

It had worked for a little while but Klaus still had a tendency to grab it if it was the closest piece of technology available so she'd given up and made him his own user account.

Annoyingly no one went near Katherine's lap top, although to be fair that was less respecting the doppelgangers privacy and more because of the terrifying amount of shoe porn that was on the hard drive.

Which brought her back to the present and the starting noise that was her computer being

_"You have pornography on your computer?"_

She could hear his excitement through the phone and the rapid tap of fingers on the keyboard,

"Not anywhere you could find it, now get off my laptop"

_"But sweetheart"_ he cajoled, "_How am I supposed to make you scream with pleasure if I don't know what turns you on?"_

She smirked, "Right because you had so much trouble figuring it out last night"

_"Well…"_ he stretched the word out, _"Imagine how much more fun it would be if we were enacting your fantasies"_

She began to grow hot and bothered at that idea and realised that if she didn't hang up soon she would likely be spending the afternoon spread out over a hard surface while Klaus…

Nope, she had way to much planning to do.

"I have to go" she tells him but then bites her lip cheekily, "But remind me to go down on my knees and suck you off when I get home tonight"

She hangs up as he begins growling and turns to Cami who had trailed away during the conversation and was chatting with a guy.

Not happily either.

Caroline frowned as she noticed Cami's body language, the way her eyes darted about for distraction and her hands kept fluttering.

"Hey Cami!" she called loudly as she strode over, "We totally have to go now!"

Cami turned to face her with wide-eyed relief, "Caroline, sorry I got distracted…but we are late for that meeting"

The man was looking between the two blondes with confusion and after a moment's hesitation held out his hand to Caroline,

"Hi" he tried bravely, "I'm Vincent"

Caroline gave his hand the briefest shake, "Hi, nice to meet you but we're late for something so bye"

She and Cami practically raced away, "It wasn't that he wasn't cute" the older blonde argues once they were out of sight, "But there was just something there, I think it was the way he was looking at me…I don't know"

Caroline shrugged, "Not your problem, now where's the student union? I want to make a note of all the improvements that will have to be made"

* * *

Vincent cursed as he stomped through the campus parking lot. Dammit, it figured with his luck he'd wind up flirting with the _wrong_ blonde.

How was he supposed to tell them apart however? Caroline was still such a young vampire that she hadn't yet acquired the unearthly grace and sense of immortality that gave away the older creatures and Cami spent so much time around the Original family that they'd begun polluting her aura.

He didn't think Celeste would take these excuses however. No, more likely she'd kill Eva without a second hesitation…

Unless he neglected to tell her the entire truth.

She picks up on the second ring,

_"What?!"_ she demands, her voice shrill and impatient and his heart sinks.

"No go I'm afraid" he tries his best to sound sincere, "She told me she has a boyfriend and didn't even look the slightest bit tempted"

Celeste curses, _"Well…did you try a spell?"_

Vincent snorts, "Like a love spell? Those are at best aphrodisiacs and at worst herbal roofies"

_"No like a capitulation spell"_ she points out, sighing as though his stupidity is beyond her and he comes to a stop in shock,

"A capitulation spell is rape and forbidden by the tenants of my coven, of all the covens in New Orleans" he reminds her sharply,

"More to the point when it wears off she'd figure out pretty damn quick that she'd been taken against her will and then we'd have a very angry hybrid recreating Salem witch hunts in our back yard"

_"You greatly overestimate Klaus Mikaelson's nobility"_ Celeste sneers, _"He likes his toys shiny and new, not broken and passed around"_

"And what of my nobility?" he argues incensed, "You think I would do that to a woman? Even a vampiress?"

_"I think you're a witch in a town that we've nurtured for centuries that is now being taken over by the most blood thirsty family in the world"_

"And if we stoop to their level how are we any better?"

There's a long pause and he wonders if the line has cut out before Celeste speaks again,

_"We're not vampires"_

* * *

A/N- See, not much progress but expect update tomorrow or later in the week.


	19. Nadia II Elijah II Katherine III Rebekah

A/N- I had to remind myself where this story was headed and fell into a little rut but I'm back now.

* * *

Anyone walking through Waldenberg park on that chilly February morning would have noticed the woman strolling along the riverside.

How could they not? She was beautiful, tall and angular, she was dressed in dark colours and resembled an off-duty model so much so that a few of the younger woman that walked past her double-checked to make sure they hadn't seen her splashed across a fashion magazine, walking the runways of Paris and New York.

They hadn't.

Nadia Petrova had every inch of her mother's beauty- perhaps more- but none of her dramatic flare and love of the show. She wore high end clothes because she enjoyed the luxury but she had never attended a fashion show and she certainly had never modeled.

Although her dancing caught the eyes of anyone who cared to watch.

She smiles as she remembers her husband, Suleyman, dead now these five hundred years but a man who had loved her and given her several children, some who had followed him to the grave, others that lived scattered across the world, awaiting her word.

But this was something she had to face alone.

Hidden away.

Like she was something to be ashamed of.

Furiously she rips off her beret and pulls out her pins throwing them into the Mississippi, letting her brunette curls fly free in the biting wind. Her hair cascades down her back and she shakes her head, running her fingers across her scalp to ease the pain. Almost immediately her reverie is interrupted,

"Darling Nadia" Giacomo chides gently, reaching for the scarf she wears around her neck to cover her hair,

"We do not want your beautiful locks becoming tangled beyond saving"

She snorts, she knows the truth as well as he.

He doesn't want any of the supernatural creatures of Niklaus' kingdom to see her and notice just how greatly she resembled Katerina Petrova.

They don't want people knowing who she is and why she is here in New Orleans.

Or, more accurately, Katerina doesn't.

Nadia had imagined her reunion with her mother a great many times, for quite a few centuries she had imagined catching her as she flew through one location or another, a tearful meeting and then both of them fleeing from Niklaus Mikaelson's wrath. However, despite all the times she had come so close to finding her she had always been just out of reach, sometimes by a few days, sometimes a few years, sometimes having never even been there at all.

So when Nadia had heard the strangest of stories, that Katherine Pierce had not only become human but had made her peace with Klaus and become lovers with his brother Elijah, living not only on the same continent, but in the same state, in the same city as them she had been dumbfounded.

She had cautiously put out feelers, making alliances with the Travellers to seek out more information and confirmation of these rumours before daring to set foot in the US South.

And when she had landed in Louisiana she'd paid well- she'd nearly had to part with the emerald ring Suleyman had given her- to find out more about her mother's life.

Katherine Pierce had many myths ascribed to her name but one of the more favourite ones to constantly be filtered through the rumour mill was her love story with the Original Elijah.

Betrothed to his brother in the beginning, the supposedly noble Elijah had still managed to seduce or - depending on the story- fall for the young and allegedly virginal Katerina Petrova. In agony over the thought of losing her to death at Klaus' hands, he had confessed that they needed her blood to break the curse upon his brother and free his hybrid nature, he had told her that he planned to give her a potion that would resurrect her from the dead and then apparently been shocked beyond belief when Katerina heard all this and ran for the hills.

As any sane woman would do.

He had betrayed his brother for a woman who had fled into the night and tricked another man who loved her- interesting pattern there- into making her a vampire and thus had begun her five hundred years dancing destruction upon the world as she always raced ahead just out of reach of the Original who had loved her and the one who wanted her dead.

Yet despite the long, long- _ridiculously exaggerated_\- list of men- and women- who claimed to have loved or been loved by Katherine Pierce, the Original Elijah had always held a place in her heart and her in his.

At least, Nadia assumes that was why they had come together to conspire to steal the cure and trade it to Klaus in return for her freedom and then when she had in turn had the cure shoved down her throat by her doppelganger she had gone to New Orleans, murdered Marcellus Gerard to save the life of Klaus' unborn son and then won her freedom just in time for her to be reunited with Elijah in Mexico- even Nadia had had trouble piecing the story together at that point- and brought to New Orleans as his beloved partner.

There wasn't a block of salt large enough for Nadia to handle this story. Even when she'd received confirmation by her mother she still had so many questions,

Chief among them being that if Elijah was such a noble man, so trustworthy, why was it that months after Nadia had arrived in New Orleans, Katerina was still so determined to keep her daughter hidden away?

It can't have been shame, otherwise the woman likely wouldn't have invited the Salvatore's and the doppelganger to town to shock everyone with their incestuous ménage-a-trois and that was provided one ignored the rumours regarding Elijah and Katerina's sex life.

Besides, while Nadia's appearance would have wreaked havoc upon her during her human lifetime, by now everyone knew that Katherine Pierce was not in any way a virgin and surely it didn't matter that she had born a child out of wedlock?

And it can't have been embarrassment over Nadia, yes she had converted to Islam and married a Muslim but as that man had been Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and she had become the first legal wife of a Sultan in history, surely there was no shame in having a Sultana as a daughter?

Especially when her mother knew nothing about it.

So what was it?

Unless her mother wasn't as free from the Original family's tyranny as she let others believe?

"Perhaps freedom itself is the greatest illusion of all" she murmurs softly, confusing Giacomo, but she shakes her head in lieu of offering an explanation,

"I wish to speak to my mother" she tells him before remembering that here in New Orleans she is not Hurrem Sultana but Nadia Petrova, lovechild of Katerina,

"Please" she adds and he smiles,

"Come back to my apartment and I shall call her at once"

Fortunately there was ample excuse for Katherine to be visiting Giacomo's bookshop, every week she came by to purchase a book for Caroline Forbes.

Not that the library in the Mikaelson mansion didn't house an ample selection of books, but these were all priceless first additions and Caroline was more comfortable with twenty-dollar paperbacks that she could highlight, dog-ear and write little notes in.

So, under the pretext of knowing Caroline's tastes best, she would come every week to browse and pick up either a classic or newer fiction for her to read before passing on to the baby vampire.

Of course there were still some who found cause to gossip in Katherine's visiting Giacomo every week, especially when the fact that he was hopelessly in love with her was the worst kept secret in New Orleans but Elijah himself was famously unworried about the man's adoration of his lover and considering how handsome Elijah was and how plain the Italian knight was by comparison, it was generally assumed that the rumours were unfounded.

So when Katherine Pierce breezed through the bookstore only an hour later and spent only a minute at the desk checking the latest orders for anything Caroline might enjoy before slipping into the hallway and up the backstairs to see her daughter, nobody even blinked.

Giacomo stands and bows to her before gesturing to the silver platter on which he has served the finest rose tea imported directly from Bulgaria.

"Were you followed?" he asks casually and she shrugs, "I'm the Princess of New Orleans, I assume I was followed by spies from at least two different factions in town"

She is unconcerned and Nadia frowns, "Should you not be worried?"

Her mother shakes her head, "I avoided Klaus' minions successfully for hundreds of years and I didn't have the skills then that I did now"

She changes the subject then, sitting down on the couch across from her, "You wanted to see me, daughter of mine?"

"I wanted to know how much longer I am going to be hidden away like this?" she demands, her frustration breaking through,

"I am glad that you get to spend your days in mansions and gardens finally free at last but I do not like being forced to stay hidden in the shadows while you do"

Katerina's face fell and Nadia felt momentarily guilty, "I'm sorry" her mother apologised,

"I know this isn't what you wanted or imagined but we have to be careful"

"Of what?!" she asks bewildered, "Of Klaus? Your supposed ally? Of Rebekah, who admittedly has been defaming you in certain quarters?"

"Of Elijah" Katerina blurted out, interrupting her child and looking miserable. There's a clattering of china against silver and both women glance at Giacomo who is studying his love with a concerned expression,

"I wish you had told me you felt this way" he states in the closest he will ever come to reprimanding Katherine Pierce,

"I haven't even discussed this with Klaus" she admitted reluctantly, "But Elijah's…changed, ever since Mystic Falls, his temper has been erratic, he isn't sleeping and he questions everyone's motives…even mine, even _Caroline's_"

Nadia frowns, "He's the Prince of the most dangerous kingdom in the world, he should be questioning everyone's motives, especially those closest to him. Klaus is known to be one of the greatest schemers and manipulators in the world. Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia turned to him for advice, and surely you have conspired to wipe out the entire family at some point or another?"

"Yes but where there is questioning someone's motives and then obsessing over it, which Elijah is swinging to more often than not"

Nadia snaps her fingers impatiently, as she used to when the entire harem was under her command,

"This is foolish, I am _tired_…"

"Nadia" Katerina scolds in the most motherly tone she's ever adopted, "I'm spending every night in Elijah's bed and I still can't guarantee my safety anymore when I wake up in the morning! How am I supposed to ensure yours?"

Nadia grits her teeth, "Is it really as bad as that?"

Her mother closes her eyes and despite being an immortal eighteen year old woman, suddenly looks very tired and much older,

"Yes…for the moment it is _every bit_ as bad as that"

It is on the tip of Nadia's tongue to reveal everything to her mother, the slaughter of her village, her enslavement, her joining of the harem and her quick rise to favourite, her long and hard path battling every woman and eunuch until she was not only Suleyman's only love, but his wife and regent when he was at war.

She knows how to scheme with the best of them and would be Katerina's greatest ally in this battle.

But her mother closes her eyes and Nadia remembers that for all the myths and rumours, for all the men and women that have been loved and lost, she does adore Elijah, she doesn't wish to go to war against him, only to help him through this tough time.

She relents with a sigh, "Then I will stay here until it is safe for the both of us"

* * *

The day Erik had been born was one of the happiest days in Elijah's life.

That child had marked the start of a new life for the Original Family, one where peace and lack of infighting was slowly becoming the norm, one where they lived with one another in general harmony and focused on future holidays as opposed to future power struggles.

In the deepest chambers of his heart Elijah liked to pretend that Erik was his grandchild rather than his nephew, that Niklaus was his son and he alone could heal the centuries of pain heaped upon his little brother by the men who had hurt and neglected him.

However, for all the love he felt for the child, lately he had found him grating.

Especially now that he was walking.

Elijah was in the ground floor parlour enjoyably immersing himself in the Master and Margarita when he heard the heavy, rapid footfall that was the portent of Erik's arrival.

It was late in the afternoon and it had been a trying day spent with irritating politicians and factional problems that could have easily been avoided if not for inflated egos.

He wanted nothing more than to lay his head in Katerina's lap and have her stroke his hair, he wanted to close his eyes and feign sleep which was so foreign a concept to him these days.

Instead he had to force a smile onto his face as his squealing nephew came barrelling into the room,

"Lijah" the boy shrieked happily, "Lijah, Lijah, Lijah!"

"Hello Erik" he keeps his voice light, "How are you?"

He receives a giggle in response and what could be a murmur of 'Good' before the toddler begins traversing the room and Elijah listens in vain for Raina, wondering where the damn nanny is and he can hear the heartbeat down in the kitchen.

Meanwhile Erik is standing in the fireplace, looking up the chimney and calling for some mythical creature he likely discovered through the ridiculous fairy tales read to him by Raina or Niklaus.

With an irritated sigh, Elijah crosses the room and scoops his nephew up and sets him down on the carpet,

"We don't stand in fireplaces" he tells him firmly but Erik only giggles again and rubs his tiny fist across his uncles chin before thundering over to the other side of the room.

Elijah frowns as a scent tickles his nose and straightens up to find himself staring into the mirror above the fireplace,

Erik had rubbed ash over his skin.

The particles fill his lungs and he finds himself unable to breathe comfortably. His annoyance is growing into anger and he turns to his nephew just as one tiny hand reaches up to touch the ornamental glass globe sitting on the side table.

Only with vampiric speed is Elijah able to pull Erik clear in time and the glass shatters loudly, dancing across the hardwood floor, the sound driving like a pick axe into his brain.

And he can't _breathe_.

Erik had been frightened by the noise and the sudden movement, he'd begun whimpering with the threat of an all-out scream before Elijah's firm hand silenced him,

"How many times have I told you not to touch things without asking!" he shouts and his nephew stares up at him wide-eyed, his cheek turning a blistering red,

"You could have _killed_ yourself you stupid boy!"

"Elijah?"

Katherine appears in the doorway, taking in the scene and then hiding her emotions behind the mask he hated so much,

"And where the _hell_ have you been?" he demands angrily,

"Not out with your friends, you don't have any"

Her fingers tighten on the doorframe but she only shrugs, "Shoe shopping, tea?"

He rejects her offer with a scowl, glaring as Erik scurries away from him and into the hallway,

"I'm going out" he tells her, striding past her and stopping to grab her before pressing a bruising kiss to her lips,

"I'll wait up" she promises with a flirtatious smile that doesn't reach her eyes, he glares but lets it go.

In lieu of a temple to his gods being available, Elijah sought out the Christ-God that Niklaus prayed to, St Anne's Church was open all day and night and thankfully empty when he slid through the ajar door and strode up to the pew where his family name was inscribed in gold.

Every Sunday they attended Mass, Niklaus with the crucifix he wore only because it had been given to him by Cesare Borgia and Katerina with the white mantilla lace draped over her gorgeous brunette curls, even though she spent most of the ceremony day-dreaming about shoe shopping or sinful deeds. The family attended purely to show their support and participation within the community.

But right now he could use divine intervention.

Elijah groaned and leant forward until his face was resting on his fists,

_What was happening to him?!_

* * *

She was not suited to this.

But still Katherine stepped into the nursery for the first time ever and followed the sound of muffled weeping to the chest of drawers.

Erik was pressed up against the wall, curled up into a little ball clearly terrified out of his wits.

The mark of Elijah's hand was still flaming his chubby little cheek and Katherine wondered if this was the first time the little boy had been struck.

Her father had strapped her across her hand whenever she'd disobeyed him and smacked her on the face three times during her pregnancy, she'd got off rather lightly as well. However even as she'd avoided involving herself in Erik's life she had a rather sneaking suspicion- alright, she was _pretty_ certain- that Elijah didn't usually punish his nephew so…forcefully.

And the last time he'd spoken to her like that she'd set his car on fire as a warning against him doing it again.

But the Mikaelson's didn't own enough cars for her to commit vehicle arson every time he spoke to her cruelly these days.

Ever since Mystic Falls…

She couldn't think about that now, not when there was a terrified child who was probably having flashbacks to his kidnapping by Tyler Lockwood and who had to be calmed down before Klaus got home and found out what had happened.

She couldn't help Elijah if he was daggered and locked away somewhere.

"Hey…little hybrid…thing" she bends down in her skinny jeans and notes that this is not a comfortable position in tight denim,

"How about you…stop crying and…come out?"

Erik blubbers and holds his hands in front of his face in a defensive position and she rolls her eyes,

"I am the last person you have to worry about in this house" she points out, sliding a hand under the drawer and wondering whether she could yank him out without causing bodily harm,

"My life is dependent on me not pissing off your dad…hey…you want some money?"

Her lip curls with disgust as a clammy hand grips hers but she eases him out and sets him on the carpet, wincing when he throws himself into her lap,

"I'll give you ten bucks if you stop crying" she offers but he continues wailing into her jeans, his tears and snot staining the denim and she pats his head cautiously, "There, there…good puppy thing"

Raina thankfully came into the room then and dropped to the floor in one move, holding out her arms and the ball of snot and drool shot across to her,

"Ina" he sobbed, burying his face in her neck, "_Hurt_, Ina!"

She kissed his forehead, "I know baby, I know"

She propped him under her chin and rocked him back and forth,

"What the fuck is going on with your fiancé?!" she demands, covering Erik's ear with her hand and Katherine shrugs,

"If I knew that don't you think I'd have it sorted by now?"

Raina glared and Katherine raised an eyebrow, "Threaten me or give me an ultimatum, I _dare_ you"

The young woman swallowed and carried Erik over to the table where she gave him a set of crayons,

"Why don't you draw something for daddy sweetie?" she suggests and he looks down at the paper with interest, his tears slowly drying

"Something with lots of colours and then maybe some paint?"

Seeing her chance for freedom, Katherine is halfway down the hallway and contemplating whether to send the jeans to the dry cleaners or toss them before Raina catches up to her and snatches her arm, pulling her around to the window,

And Katherine was already on her last nerve.

"Hands off were-bitch" she snapped, "Or so help me I'll throw Wolfsbane in your juice"

Raina's face goes remarkably pale and even though she's not _supposed_ to be an evil villainess anymore, Katherine does enjoy seeing the hint of fear in the girl's eyes.

But fear led people to do stupid things and she was not equipped to fight a werewolf even one who hadn't triggered the curse.

"Oh relax" Katherine waved her hand, "If I'd thought you were a threat you'd have never made it this far alive"

The girl swallows nervously, "How long have you known?"

She rolled her eyes, "Did you honestly think nobody would notice you taking Erik on day trips to the Bayou? Or that you were meeting with the same guy every week? A guy who bears a remarkable resemblance to Klaus considering they have nine centuries of separation between them"

Raina closes her eyes and clearly curses herself for her foolishness, "Are you going to tell Elijah?"

"I was planning to" Katherine admitted, "But then Mystic Falls happened and now…can you sense it?" she asks curiously, surprising even herself,

"The tingle on your skin, the raising of your hairs that tells us the storm is coming?"

Werewolves were close to the earth, surely they could feel the dark magic that was permeating the land, rising like foul vapour and weaving its tendrils into every aspect of life in the Quarter.

However Raina only shook her head, "But we can see it, see everything changing" she tells her,

"It's why we've been bringing the pack into Louisiana and why I've been taking Erik to meet with Cary, we don't want him to be frightened if we have to move in to protect him"

She accepts this with a shrug and shifts on her feet, "Good luck with that, however if I were you, I wouldn't let Klaus find out on his own, he tends to get annoyed when he's not the smartest guy in the Quarter"

"And you?" Raina challenges, "Are you planning on telling anyone what you are, who you are?"

Katherine's smile cuts like glass as she saunters away "Careful little wolf, accidents happen every day"

As far as she was concerned, nobody needed to know what she was capable of until the protection around Elijah failed.

* * *

The compound was thankfully empty when Rebekah swanned in that evening. The lights were off and all the doors closed and she took a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet before the depression set in.

It wasn't right or fair that she should have to be alone when her brothers were so close by. It wasn't fair that she, the Original Rebekah should be isolated in the heart of the new vampire kingdom.

It wasn't right that she wasn't surrounded by friends and admirers while Caroline bloody Forbes was now best friends with Camille and Katherine Pierce had chivalrous men falling over her without any threat to her relationship with Elijah.

These two were society darlings while Rebekah went mostly ignored, forgotten about by all except Francesca Correa and Oliver.

Olly.

She summons him now via text and he's there within the hour, walking through the dark halls to her well lit bedroom where she's waiting on the bed in her lingerie.

She finds solace in his arms, she finds her vanity soothed by his exclamations of her beauty, her taste, her skill. She enjoys his body and the warmth of his flesh, the physical sensations and afterwards holds onto him tighter when he made to leave,

"Where're you going?" she asks with a pout and he grins,

"I'd love to stay but I'd love to go on living even more, can't do that if Klaus comes home"

Rebekah sits up and the sheets fall down to her stomach, "No need to worry about that" she informs him, "He's at the mansion for the evening"

Olly grins and tosses his shirt back to the floor, unbuttoning his pants before pausing,

"What about Katherine?" he asks with a flicker of fear in his eyes, "She is one dangerous woman and I do not want her running to your brother, either of them"

Rebekah rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't worry about her, she's too busy admiring her own reflection to stick her nose into my life and if she did I'd bite it off"

Olly hops onto the bed, causing her to bounce slightly and pulls her into his arms, she smiles and he holds her tight,

"As long as I have my beautiful blonde gal to protect me from overbearing brothers and their cheating girlfriends I'm good"

Rebekah's head shoots up so quickly she's surprised she doesn't knock his jaw out of place, "_Cheating?! Who?_"

Ollie raises his eyebrows in surprise, "You haven't heard? Word round the Quarter is your sister-in-law-to-be is disappearing for hours at a time, completely drops off the grid, nobody can find her, not even your brothers, we all figured she was getting herself some side action"

Rebekah takes a moment to process all of this- Katherine Pierce cheating on her brother? Surely even the peasant wouldn't be that stupid, then again…

She smirks and settles back down, her imagination already running wild with the fantasies of Elijah publicly ending his relationship with Katherine, verbally abusing her and labelling her whore while everyone watched on in scandalous delight before Klaus stepped in and killed her…no, revoked her freedom and once again sent her scurrying off into the night, into exile and hiding while she, Rebekah got to bask in the sunlight.

Maybe she would even take part in Katherine's public humiliation and rip off her daylight jewellery, crushing it into the dirt and sentencing her to lifetimes in the darkness.

* * *

Celeste looks up from her spell book as Francesca and Oliver join her in the tomb,

"Any progress?" she demands and is irritated when only Oliver nods,

"I spoke to Rebekah last night about Katherine cheating and she's willing to run the whole nine yards with the idea" he reported proudly,

"So I'm guessing she'll spread the word around and with enough people saying it, anything becomes true"

Celeste inwardly smiled at the idea of Elijah soon being single again, she would put herself forward then and introduce herself to him as Sabine. He'd been attracted to her during their brief interaction in the twentieth century and he'd fall for her in this form as well. They'd become lovers and when enough time had passed she'd gently break the news to him that she was Celeste and she'd once again be the witch he utterly adored.

And this time she'd make damn sure Klaus was out of play and unable to harm her or sever her relationship with his brother.

She looks to Francesca and resists the urge to insult her, she needed the Correa mob but that didn't mean that she had to like them. The woman and her family were petty mobsters who thought that just because they could bully and belittle the humans until they were top dog in their world, they were something big in the supernatural community.

Yet, for all her power suits and strutting around, Francesca was taking weeks, sometimes months to achieve anything and kept arguing for delays, suggesting they take their time to figure everything out.

Celeste had taken her time. She had taken two hundred damn years, she knew what she wanted and how she was going to go about getting it.

However, for the sake of being co-operative, the three of them had a set plan.

First they'd destroy Katherine Pierce, then let Elijah run mad and go out of play while handling Caroline Forbes, Rebekah had proven time and time again she'd turn on Klaus with very little provocation and then when Klaus was at his most vulnerable they would strike and depose him.

When Celeste had finished with Klaus, her final move would be to sic Elijah on the Correa family, kill every last one of them and then assume their riches and businesses until they were the only power couple in the city.

And she would be happy.

* * *

A/N- Anyone who is interested in learning Turkish, speaks Turkish or doesn't mind English subtitles, watch the Magnificent Century on youtube. An absolutely gorgeous historical drama about Hurrem Sultana and Suleyman the Magnificent.


	20. Katherine IV Klaus I Elijah III

A/N- Super long chapter to get the ball rolling again. Some of the references I make in this chapter re: Kalijah are part of my New world canon and can be found in Moving In, Chapters 2 &amp; 7.

TW- Abuse

* * *

As far as the supernatural community of New Orleans was concerned, life beyond the Bayou was non-existent.

Yes they were aware that they weren't the centre of the world but the Original Family were the epicentre of the supernatural world.

This made the French Quarter the capital of their world, the stomping ground for the vampires with a small cluster of streets known as the Cauldron and inhabited almost exclusively by witches.

The rest of New Orleans was simply places to venture when one grew bored or wanted to play human for a little while.

The Bayou was werewolf territory but no-one else had an interest in the miles of swamp land.

It was hot there, the air reeked of damp earth and rancid water, it was filled with mosquitoes and other bugs, the few bars there only served local beer which was drunk by people not worth feeding on.

So it was considered to be the outer limits of their supernatural world and anything beyond that was utterly human to the point of being absolutely no use to them.

Who would consider setting foot in places that didn't even have the status of being one-horse towns?

The answer to that was Annabelle Mason.

And she hated the tiny cluster of houses and one general store that was wedged between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Saint Catherine, past the Bayou and only kept alive by the nearby highway and the gas station that was the last resort of truck drivers who hadn't been smart enough to fill up when driving through NOLA.

However, all these things that made the place terrible and inhabitable for someone who had grown up in the wondrous London, also meant that an Original wouldn't set foot in the place nor even stop their car there.

So she sighs and tries to stay positive as she once again blasts herself with bug repellent.

Bug repellent and bags of no-name, no-brand tea because the general store didn't stock tea leaves and ordering them in would raise too many questions.

She could barely go outside or be seen around the town as it was, even with her British accent buried as much as possible she couldn't manage the Southern twang which meant that she attracted notice as an outsider.

The damn sacrifices she made for the cause.

The knock on her paint-peeling, cheap wooden door momentarily distracts her from her musings,

"Entre" she calls in French, because she needs some culture in this miserable little place.

Ashley comes in with a young woman in tow.

A woman whom Annabelle can tell immediately isn't entirely human.

She's not exactly sure what it is, perhaps her appearance, perhaps her outfit, perhaps her demeanour but Annabelle raises an eyebrow,

"Gypsy?" she asks, careful to keep the long ingrained prejudice out of her voice, mostly she is curious.

It was rare to find one of their kind still practising or capable of the magic outside of Europe.

The woman gives her a disappointed look, "Traveller is the non-racist term"

Annabelle grimaces, "Of course, forgive me" she stands and extends a hand, "Annabelle Mason"

The woman has a firm handshake, "Scarlet Rose"

"Pleased to meet you" she gestures to the threadbare couch, "Do sit down"

After her mission in New York was concluded, Annabelle had brought Ashely back down South with her.

Despite her initial decision that it would be too dangerous to try and infiltrate New Orleans, she's quickly realised that it would be too dangerous not to.

Whatever happened in this city, whatever happened to the Original family or their immediate allies would have a ripple effect on the rest of the supernatural world and the balance of Nature.

However, Jesse was still in Salem trying to gain access to the Bennett coven and figure out what their contingency plans were, all he could manage to find out was that, even though they'd barely survived the last tussle against the Original family, they were apparently planning another attack.

He wasn't making much headway there but Annabelle would just as rather he stay in Salem for the time being, she was cautious about having a person of colour wandering around small towns in the South, she didn't want to have to deal with white supremacist groups or everyday racism while also trying to deal with the supernatural as well.

"Scarlet Rose found me" Ashley confessed as they settled down, "I'm not sure how but she approached me and figured me for a spy"

Annabelle wasn't sure whether to be worried or deeply impressed by this, she thought she'd trained her people better but the Traveller witch shrugs off the feat,

"You spend your life being ignored by mainstream society, you learn to watch and tell who else doesn't fit in or is pretending to be someone they're not"

She looks between Annabelle and Ashley, "Who are you exactly? And what is your interest in the Original family?"

Now, wasn't _that_ a long story.

One Annabelle wasn't ready to get into just yet,

"At the moment, we wish only to observe them" she offered smoothly, "Provide a level of protection for them against a coven we know means them harm, but only if we can manage it without revealing ourselves"

From the look on her face, Annabelle can tell that Scarlet doesn't believe her but considering that Scarlet Rose likely isn't her real name, she's not about to go around accusing people of falsity.

"And the child?" she questions, "Erik? What are your intentions towards him?"

She shrugs, "In all honesty, he's of no concern to us at the moment nor will he likely be for at least another decade or so. Not that we won't be interested to discover the extent of his powers and strength but we aren't planning to interact with him when his father still has the memory of his kidnapping fresh in his mind"

Scarlet Rose nods, "You should know that he is currently being protected- in a way- by the remnants of his grandfather's pack. The Crescent Wolves are making a fuss about him being their heir and their right to him as Hayley's son but it's his paternal relatives that will claim him as their own"

"Who exactly is he being protected from?" Ashley asks carefully and the witch sighs and shifts in her seat,

"At the moment? Elijah Mikaelson. The man has been growing steadily bad tempered over the last few months, lashing out at everyone, including his fiancé"

"He was nearly killed in Mystic Falls last year" Annabelle offers as explanation,

"Perhaps he's still recovering from that?"

"The way he's behaving I wouldn't say he's recovering at all" she remarks drily,

"He's warded against the very worst hexes and curses but still, if he continues on this path he'll find himself daggered before summer"

"Which will leave Klaus Mikaelson vulnerable to attack" Annabelle predicts, growing cold as she realises just how close to the precipice the supernatural community was,

"And with him will go Katherine, Caroline and Rebekah"

Their new ally nods, "If you can avoid it, I'd tell you to leave now, otherwise the best you can do is monitor the situation and help me try to rebuild once everything starts falling apart"

* * *

Students who started an in-depth conversation just as the tutorial was due to end were just idiots in love with the sound of their own voice, Caroline decides uncharitably as she races across campus, resisting the urge to use vampiric speed as she dashes to the parking lot and curses when she sees that every last damn person in attendance at Tulane had apparently decided to leave the university for the weekend.

She was going to be late.

And yes, technically the party didn't start until the Originals turned up, but that didn't mean that it was fair to keep everyone waiting because she was stuck in traffic.

There was a masquerade ball being thrown tonight by an actual English Countess, a friend of Katherine's who she said threw the most amazing parties.

Caroline was excited to go, _really_ she was.

Even though it was slightly jarring to go from college parties in cheap bars to glittering ballrooms where she spun across the dance floor with her nine hundred year old boyfriend.

While people watched them both.

While they watched her and tried to figure out whether to treat her like a woman or a queen.

When Caroline had committed to moving to New Orleans and having a long-term relationship with Klaus, she had thought the hardest thing would be adjusting to her first real adult romance.

It turned out that having your boyfriend go grocery shopping with you, cook meals and share Netflix before you stayed over for the night was nothing compared to having every witch, vampire and wolf know who you were. It had made her slightly paranoid whenever she caught a stranger's eye around town, unsure whether they were checking her out or watching Klaus' girlfriend.

She couldn't even wear sweat pants outside anymore and the ugg boots she'd bought herself as a treat after everything she'd survived last year barely made it past her bedroom door these days.

Thankfully, she had her life separated into two neat compartments. Normal, human college life and vampire life. Which was why she was headed over to the Garden District- Katherine had first, second and final approval on her ball gowns and masques and if that woman knew anything it was fashion.

She's almost forty minutes behind schedule when she parks her car on Fourth Avenue. Leaving it in the street so she can flash inside, up the stairs to Klaus' bedroom, she's shedding her shoes and outer layers as she goes, nearly down to her lingerie when she reaches the threshold of the ensuite bathroom and finds herself suddenly changing course, flying across the room and landing on the bed.

"No" she says firmly even as she bounces across the mattress,

"Not a chance, we're already running late"

Klaus appears above her with a cheeky grin, "Party doesn't start until we get there sweetheart" he points out,

"So technically whenever we arrive is the right time"

She fixes him with a pointed glare and he struggles to turn his smile into a pout,

"But…" he begins before breaking down laughing at her annoyance, "Very well love, you have your freedom"

He gestures grandly to his bathroom and she tries to look dignified as she strips off her bra and thong, testing the water under her hand before stepping into the shower,

"Remind me when we get home tonight" she says, not even noticing how easily she refers to Klaus' house as home.

* * *

Who knew there were so many ballrooms in the French Quarter?

"This was a speakeasy back in the day" Katherine told her as they climbed out of the car, both of them stopping to pick up the skirts of their gowns as they ascended the stairs.

"I've seen the photos, it was a cute little place with the whole flapper vibe…it's almost a shame that it's lost the underground vibe and became a place for the uber-rich and powerful to play"

"Yes" Elijah comments sarcastically as he and Klaus walk behind them,

"What a _shame_ that it's no longer a bar serving moonshine and you're no longer running for your life, progress truly is _terrible_"

Caroline blinks in surprise at that statement, assuming that it was meant to have been a joke that just wasn't delivered properly and looks over her shoulder to see Klaus shooting his brother a glare.

Katherine laughs however, turning to deliver the seductive, secretive smile that Caroline tried to mimic a hundred times in the mirror in her bedroom in Mystic Falls.

Never successfully.

"Everybody ready?" she asks before they step through the door, the four of them slipping on their masques,

"Good and remember my lord and love" she slips her arm through Elijah's playfully, "We have to show our true faces at midnight!"

"Do you even know how to do that?"

Whatever Katherine's response would have been is lost when they enter the ball room and the hostess sweeps over to them full of smiles and gracious welcomes,

"Katherine dearest, it has been too long…oh I know, my fault entirely I foolishly went home to England for a spell…no not an actual spell, that would have been more productive. Now you must introduce me to your lovely friend"

Caroline fixes the smile on her face so that it's polite instead of mocking. She had been so worried about meeting a Countess, a titled woman was so out of her realm of training but this is just the Founding Family society of her home town on a larger scale.

"Countess Salisbury" Katherine takes her hand and places it in Caroline's, "Caroline Forbes, an absolute darling and a vampire of my own making"

She takes the woman's hand with a smile and they air kiss, "Lovely to meet you"

The Countess is beautiful with blonde hair and grey eyes, eyes that show her good nature,

"Dear child" she coos, even though she would barely have been a decade older than Caroline when she turned,

"So grand to finally meet you and I see that with you even _Niklaus_ Mikaelson deigns to attend my little parties"

Klaus grins and slips an arm around Caroline's waist, throwing an inane comment to the hostess before whisking her away to the drinks table.

He picks up two glasses of champagne and toasts her,

"Drink up sweetheart" he tells her, "Don't even think about the people watching you"

Caroline hadn't until he spoke, now she was aware that the guests surrounding them were trying to surreptitiously watch their every move.

The problem was that even in their masques, people could still tell who they were, they just studied all the blonde couples in the room until they spotted the ones either standing beside the brunette couple with the tell-tale curls and pristine hand-made suit.

Or even if they were alone there weren't so many blonde couples in the New Orleans supernatural society that they could go unnoticed.

"I'm thinking of dying my hair red" she comments drily and he chuckles, "Change can be good"

"Speaking of change" she lowers her voice and runs her hand up his arm, giggling and pressing her mouth to his ear, trying to lower her voice to the point where only Klaus would hear her,

"_What_ is up with your brother?!"

Klaus only shrugs, apparently not as concerned with secrecy as she is,

"This happens every so often sweetheart, it's a simple case of ennui. Occasionally immortality weighs heavily on the head and heart" he looks to the dance floor where the brother in question was dancing with his fiancé,

"He just needs to find something new to interest him"

Caroline quirks her eyebrow to show her doubt but then is distracted when a warlock she'd met in one of her classes comes over,

"Caroline" he laughs and she joins him,

"Vincent, hi"

* * *

"Masquerade" Katherine sang in her head as Elijah led her off the dance floor "Masquerade. Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you"

Certainly, if nothing else people were smiling. But they weren't the usual simpering, eager to please smiles that followed her and Elijah wherever they went.  
There was a hint of cruelty to these smiles, a touch of malice and perhaps even some schadenfreude?

The question was why?

Well, she would find out soon enough.

She loses Elijah in the press of people and when she can't immediately find him again shrugs to herself and turns her attention to an aerial silk performer, she's idly wondering whether she could pick up the skill when a gentle hand touches her arm,

"My lady" the soft voice with lingering Italian accent reaches her ears,

"Your spoiling it" she sulks, not looking away from the performance, "The point of a masquerade is to be hidden, to make strangers of friends…"

"And friends of strangers?" Giacomo Farnese finishes for her, before taking her free hand and placing it on his arm,

"I need to speak with you _urgently_"

He begins walking her around the room, their full face masques covering their lips,

"Is Nadia…?" she begins, not entirely sure what she's asking. Surely even her daughter wasn't brazen enough to gate crash the party but he shakes his head,

"She is fine, it is you I am worried about"

"There are rumours pervading the Quarter," he reveals to her, turning them both so that they are staring out a window that would have to have been added after the Prohibition, their breath fogs up the glass and Katherine can see that they're being watched in the reflection,

"Rumours that I know for a fact are untrue and I say so to anyone who is stupid enough to repeat them in my presence"

He is obviously reluctant to divulge these rumours to her and she resists the urge to tap her foot,

"They are saying that you have been or are being unfaithful to Elijah," he swallows,

"That you are engaging in an affair which is why you have been disappearing for hours at a time, of course this means that somebody has been noticing that you disappear for hours at a time which means…"

"Unfaithful?" Katherine echoes the deceptively beautiful word in disbelief, even as her cheeks flame with humiliation.

She supposes that it's not an entirely unfair lie to speak of her, her reputation was made on the deception of brothers and the breaking of hearts but since starting her life over with Elijah she had taken great pains to show her loyalty to him.

It hurts that someone was so thoughtless of her efforts that they'd made up this lie to amuse themselves.

"It is a stupid piece of gossip" Giacomo announces derisively, seeking to comfort her but in her pain she snatches her hand off his arm,

"There are rumours that I'm cheating on Elijah and you take the first opportunity to be _seen_ with me?!"

He scoffs, "Nobody who knows you would think…"

"Everybody who knows me knows of you and everybody that knows you knows your love for me" she snaps,

"It is the worst kept secret in this damn town, if not undisputed fact. Perhaps in your attempt to keep me from danger you led me straight into the pyre and are now lighting the match"

She can tell by the set of Giacomo's shoulders that she has hurt him beyond words, he had always been proud of his chivalrous love for her but it can't have been easy to adore a woman who not only didn't return his feelings but was deeply in love with another man.

"Forgive me for intruding on your evening Ms Pierce"

She holds the masque tighter to her face so he doesn't see her flinch and turns away, nearly colliding with an all too familiar chest.

Wonderful.

"Shall we dance my lord?" she suggests but Elijah clearly has other ideas, grabbing her wrist and dragging her through the crowd, through a doorway and into a grimy hall where the prohibited alcohol had likely been carried through back in the day,

"I know how much fun you have playing with people as if they're toys that exist for your amusement" he lectures as he presses her against the wall,

"However I do not feel that I am being unfair if I ask you to please consider my reputation and feelings when we are out in public"

He is invading her personal space and she experiences a moment of fear before brushing it aside.

He wouldn't strike her in public, or even raise his voice when there's the chance of them being overheard.

"I always consider your feelings" she swears, "Think Elijah! Why would I cheat on you? For pleasure? Even now when we can barely manage a civil conversation, every night you come to our bed and we have our fill of each other so I would not need to satisfy my desires elsewhere. For money? I have all the wealth I need. For power? The only person in the world more powerful than you is your brother and even if I were to dye my hair blonde I could not steal his heart from Caroline. What _reason_ would I have to be unfaithful to you?"

For the quickest of seconds she is hopeful that this logic will be the breakthrough needed to get their relationship back on track. Their relationship which was five hundred years old and yet had not even clocked its first year.

His eyes are flickering uncertainly as he studies her face, scanning for the little tells every human shows when they lie.

He won't find them, not even because she's being honest but because the last few months have disconcerted her so much that she's sunk back into the façade of Katherine Pierce.

And she was the best liar she knew, so talented that evens he could no longer discern between truth and fiction.

"You gave your maidenhead to a man that you loved and would have married and then when he was accused of witchcraft you stood aside and watched him burn" he snorts disdainfully,

"You don't commit actions based on reason Katerina, you commit them because you love chaos"

He storms away and she doesn't bother going after him. Her cheeks are burning with humiliation and hurt, she wants to look around and make sure that they weren't seen or overheard but she doesn't want to give people the satisfaction of thinking she cared what they thought of her.

"Dance with me"

She looks up to see Klaus standing there, a hand outstretched.

They haven't danced together in five hundred years and don't partner well together, too stiff and stilted to dance properly but Klaus pulls her close and they move about the floor slowly in a shuffling, two step.

But Klaus hadn't asked her to dance for her grace and talent. He asked her to show everyone here tonight and in the Quarter that he was her ally.

"Do you know what is happening with my brother?" he asks, his mouth close to her ear,

"It's got to the point where even Caroline's noticed and she barely even knows him"

She laughs lightly, pretending that he's said something amusing,

"No" she whispers, "All I know is that it can't be magic destroying our relationship, I had precautions taken"

She shifts her hand to his shoulder and notices the bruise already forming on her wrist, Elijah's fingers having pressed hard enough against her skin to leave distinctive marks and she has nothing with which to hide the injury.

"I am going to Bourbon St" she tells Klaus, turning to leave him, not caring what people will think about her departing so early.

"Katerina…" he begins but she tenses, "_Don't_…"

She swallows and tries again, "Katherine" she holds her mask over her face, "Katherine Pierce"

Not one person made a move to stop her as she swept out into the night, although their eyes burned the skin on her back.

She wants to run.

Her first instinct is always to run.

Her second instinct is to go to Woldenberg Park and breathe in the scent of the Mississippi River.

But instead, she heads to Bourbon St, the lamps casting a golden glow on the street as a light rain began to fall.

"Masquerade" Katherine sang under her breath as she walked,

"_Paper faces on parade, hide your face so that the world will never find you_"

* * *

For centuries the world was flat and the centre of the universe.

Nowadays it was round, orbited the sun and has an axis that it had apparently tilted on because Klaus was at a bloody masquerade party trying to maintain the family reputation while Elijah was acting like a jealous fool.

And Rebekah, who must have gone to great effort to sneak in undetected was at the bar and not trying to be the centre of attention.

Was this what his family looked like in peacetime?

If so, he wouldn't mind another enemy crawling out of the woodwork to try and destroy them all.

Nothing like the threat of death to really unite the Mikaelson unit.

Caroline- who despite all common sense, _loved_ him- was in the corner chatting with that student friend of hers.

The one who didn't seem to realise that practising witches carried the scent of herbs on them that even an unturned werewolf could probably pick up.

Another issue that Klaus would have to deal with but one problem at a time.

He finds Elijah in conversation with a witch of his own, one in a boring black gown and without a masque. Either a gate crasher or someone who considered themselves above the festivities.

"Big brother" he interrupts, clapping a hand on his shoulder, "Drink with me"

Elijah huffs in annoyance but politely takes his leave of the woman, granting her a smile that only a year or so ago Klaus would have called flirtatious by his older brother's proper standards.

But now that the engagement ring was firmly on Katerina's finger, he called it overly friendly.

"What is it, Niklaus?"

He raises his eyes at the exasperation in his brother's tone and fakes an expression of innocence,

"Nothing at all, I simply wanted a drink with my brother. I thought we could sip fine whisky, reminisce and perhaps even catch-up on our goings on. I'll go first shall I? I'm enjoying playing house with Caroline although I can see that she's unsure whether or not her role as my lover includes interfering in my ruling of New Orleans and I'm still trying to figure out how to approach that"

They reach the bar and Klaus orders the whisky even as he keeps an eye on his brother, tossing up whether or not to give him a little nip if he tries to walk away.

"Your turn" he prompts when they both receive their drinks, "How's things with you?"

Elijah rolls his eyes, "Wonderful, I'm not sure if you're aware but the entire Quarter seems to be of the opinion that Katerina is indulging in an affair which unfortunately would explain her disappearances and secretive nature of late"

Klaus' eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Surely you don't believe that foolishness? Your lover is a survivor, it would take a great passion to turn her from you and I would have noticed if such a one capable of exciting such emotion had come into town. No" he sips his whisky,

"If you want a reason behind her secretive nature and constant disappearances perhaps look no further than your treatment of her?"

If Elijah had been expecting sympathy from his own blood he was sadly mistaken and the betrayal shows on his face but Klaus is monitoring his actions, trying to see anything new or strange in his brother. Anything supernatural that might explain this behaviour.

"Perhaps I am simply realizing that great loves don't hold up so well under the strain of the everyday banality" Elijah finally confessed,

"Perhaps I am tired of the constant charade of endless desire and eternal happiness"

Oh Hell.

Klaus had hoped, for the sake of peace in their new realm that Elijah would have at least a decade or two of matrimonial bliss with Katerina before the cracks began to show.

Would it have killed the two of them to have managed to be happy with one another until Erik was in his late teens and able to fend for himself?

"My condolences" he bites down on an ice-cube, "But if you are going to end things with your fiancé could you please have the decency to give me some warning first? After all, this wouldn't be the first Southern town that your dear doppelganger burnt down to the ground"

"Of course Niklaus," Elijah sighs, "Far be it from me to prioritize my romantic life over _your_ wants and needs"

Right.

One sibling down, one to go.

"Little sister"

He smiles as Rebekah jumps back from the werewolf she's been running around with for months now, there's a look of surprise in her eyes and he bites back on his smile.

Did she honestly think he didn't know? Why did everyone around him forget that he could pick up on the scents they carried on their bodies?

It was his werewolf nature that had made the wolves so fascinating to him, that had driven him to sneak out and watch them change month after month, that had kept them from attacking him and lured him into the false belief that Henrik would be safe to watch them as well.

It was his werewolf nature that had led to Henrik's death, to their mother cursing them to become the monsters they were, to the centuries spent running from Mikael.

How did _Rebekah_ and _Elijah_ of all people forget who he was, _what_ he was?

He barely gives her flavour of the hour a glance, "Run off and play puppy" he orders, "I want to speak to my sister"

The blonde werewolf scampers off so quickly that Klaus writes him off immediately as an unsuitable consort for his sister.

Poor thing really did have the worst taste in men. Everyone she fell for was either using her in an attempt to kill the Original Family or wanted her purely for her power and her willingness to drop her knickers.

Maybe in a year or so he could ask Caroline to speak to Rebekah, give her some pointers on choosing acceptable men?

Then again, Caroline had chosen _him_…

"What do you want Nik?" Rebekah demands, shaking him out of his thoughts,

"I was having fun before you interrupted me"

"Only to ask if you'd noticed anything strange about Elijah lately" he admits as he sits down beside her,

"Or if you'd sensed anything out of the ordinary"

Her terrible choice in romantic partners aside, Klaus had always put stock in Rebekah's instincts, if he had to guess he'd say that they were the remnant of what little magic she'd picked up from their mother and carried over into their life as vampires.

She sniffs derisively, "If you mean do I know anything about Elijah's problems with his trollop? No, I don't but I can't say I'm surprised, Katherine Pierce is known for being a slut"

"Stones and glass houses my sweet sister" Klaus chastened playfully, careful to hide his disappointment.

He should be relieved that Elijah alone was the cause of his own unhappiness and drama, there has been no trouble in town since they'd returned from Mystic Falls and peace is a good thing.

Except that with no enemies to fight it looked like his family were turning on themselves and then on each other, creating drama where it was unnecessary.

Caroline interrupts then, coming over with a troubled smile on her face and curling into his side.

Acting like a loving girlfriend which isn't strange but she usually isn't this affectionate in pub-

"I assume maiming, mauling or straight up killing aren't listed in my boyfriend duties?"

She kisses his shoulder, "Sorry, all are completely forbidden…he didn't know we were in an exclusive relationship"

Klaus scoffs, "Oh I'm sure"

He wants to point out that anyone who could score an invitation to this party would know the exclusivity of their relationship but it's hard to remain angry when Caroline's hand is slipping up the back of his jacket and her nails are raking down his back through his shirt,

"Take me to the manor" she orders, "Now!"

For all her amorous intentions, poor Caroline passes out after her first orgasm. Klaus hears her breathing even and lifts his head from between her thighs, one hand holding up the skirt of her gown while the other has her thong pushed out of the way. He contemplates undressing her but the movements might wake her up, better to cover her with a blanket and leave her snoozing in his bedroom.

The manor on Bourbon St was heritage listed and an absolute pain to try and renovate or even refurbish without losing the original character and charm of the place. Which is why not even Klaus had his own bathroom, instead he had to share the one with his siblings at the end of the hall.

And how they'd managed that without killing one another was in itself a wonder.

He passes Elijah's bedroom on the way back and sticks his head in, checking to see if his brother was spending the night there or in the Garden District.

He was nowhere to be seen but Katerina was.

Curled up asleep in an armchair, she had taken off her gown and make-up, ready for bed in a short emerald green nightgown that in her current position was clearly the only thing she had on.

She couldn't possibly be comfortable.

In a rare moment of kindness, because she had been the primary receiver of Elijah's bad temper over the last few months, Klaus crosses the room silently and picks her up as gently as possible.

She doesn't even stir when he pulls back the thick blankets on the bed and tucks her in, her breathing doesn't change in the slightest.

The only sleeping human Klaus has been around in years is his son Erik, who, as many children are, was a very deep sleeper. As such, it didn't occur to him that Katerina should have woken up when he moved her, she should have sensed his touch or his scent or the sensation of being carried.

It didn't occur to him at all, so when he went downstairs to the parlour and saw the pink champagne that she must have opened and drunk, he poured himself a glass, made a face at the sweetness and sat down on the couch, reaching for his sketchbook to distract himself from his arousal until Caroline herself was awake.

He loses consciousness before the pencil even touches paper.

* * *

Celeste or Sabine as she would have to introduce herself for the immediate future had considered it a stroke of luck when she'd managed to sneak into the masquerade ball that evening.

And it must have been a gift from the heavens that had landed her in the right place at the right time. She'd just had her first cocktail when Elijah had walked past her, his head turning as he searched the crowd and the ribbon holding his masque in place had come loose.

Celeste had caught it shortly before it hit the floor,

"My" she giggled as she held it out to him, "Midnight already? But I've only just arrived"

He smiles politely and their fingers brush as he takes the masque and he starts as he surely feels the same shock of electricity that she does. His lips tremble before his smile becomes genuine.

He has always been attracted to her, no matter what body she possessed.

"You're in luck I assure you, the night is still young unlike this masque" he turns it over to show her,

"It is older than this city itself, as am I...Elijah Mikaelson"

When he holds out his hand she places her fingertips in his palm, allowing him to press his lips against her knuckles,

"Sabine Laurent" she returns the introduction, "I'm a witch but a good one"

He grinned, "Oh of course, I usually meet the bad ones in darkened rooms mere moments before they try to kill me"

She smirks, "Then on behalf of all the good witches in New Orleans- and there are a few of us- you should let me take you to dinner and tell you about our ways?"

His smile falters, "I would love to unfortunately I am engaged to be married"

"Oh" she drops her head and wishes she could blush on command, "I'm sorry, when I heard the rumours about Katherine cheating I just assumed that a man known for his nobility and dignity would…"

"I'm the noble and dignified _Original_" he mutters darkly, "My virtues are granted only by comparison to my siblings"

"Well, I hate to be rude but I don't believe you. Perhaps you'll give me a chance to argue my case after all?"

The Hybrid had interrupted them at that point and she'd taken that as her cue to leave the party before she attracted too much attention.

She'd taken a taxi straight to Francesca's place, not even in the driveway before Vincent is ringing her in a panic- as he always seemed to be doing on the rare occasion he wasn't ringing her to report his failures.

"The spell didn't work on Caroline," he tells her before she can even speak, "It just made her horny for Klaus"

"What about Petrova?" she demands, "She left the party earlier than we anticipated"

She hears him exhale, "She argued with Elijah but I had some gift wrapped pink champagne laced with valerian root delivered to Bourbon St while the party was going, she had one glass and from what I can tell will be out like a light for several hours yet"

Celeste congratulated him on his work and hung up. If nothing else, she supposed it was good to know that Katherine was vulnerable to herbs, that her new state couldn't recover immediately but what use was she unconscious to them tonight?

Well, she supposed it meant that she couldn't seduce Elijah or repair the fractures in their relationship if she was asleep.

* * *

Before tonight, Elijah had begun learning to love the rain.

Rain was cleansing, when it drenched him he found that he could breathe.

But tonight, it is light on his skin and he finds himself tight-chested as he stalks into the manor on Bourbon St.

He can hear his brother asleep in the parlour and Miss Forbes asleep in his bedroom.

He can hear Katerina asleep in their bedroom.

The bedroom that she disliked, preferring instead their apartment on the top floor of Le Coeur Jardin, with its king sized bed, ensuite bathroom and walk in wardrobe for her near endless amounts of clothes and shoes.

Still, she would sleep where he did, even now when they had been arguing.

Knowing this, he is feeling somewhat tender towards his fiancé as he climbs the stairs and walks down the hallway to their bedroom, listening to her steady heartbeat and imagining her waiting for him in the armchair or the windowsill.

Perhaps he could forget their troubles for a while and enjoy the pleasure that was to be found in their coupling.

When he steps into their bedroom however, his heart stops and his blood runs cold.

Katerina Petrova was curled up in their bed, her head resting on her arm, her chest rising and falling steadily with each breath she took.

She hadn't waited up for him.

Ever since they moved in together all those months ago in that house on Conti St, Katerina had _never_ gone to bed without him nor he without her.

It was part of their routine, no matter what, they waited for one another.

Yet there she was now, sleeping in the bed, underneath the blankets after he'd spent the whole evening enduring the humiliating scorn of the Quarter who believed him to be a cuckold, he had been forced to hear their laughter, their whispers and she, with no sympathy, had gone to bed uncaring of his suffering.

She was so selfish.

_And he can't breathe._

He stands at the end of the bed and grabs hold of the covers with his fists, in a fluid movement he tears them off and sends them flying across the room.

The sudden loss of warmth has Katherine waking up startled, gazing about in confusion before settling on him,

"My lord…?"

Her voice is thick with sleep. Sleep Elijah hasn't known in so long.

_And he can't breathe._

"You treacherous, sadistic fiend" he growls as she pulls herself into sitting position,

"How is it that in one act, one almost casual, everyday act, you can show how little you _care_ for me?"

In that one act she has him questioning every tender moment between them.

She has him remembering that her first act upon regaining life was to lie to him and run away from him at her earliest opportunity, that she'd used seduction to try and convince him to betray his brother once more for her and that he'd been forced to compel her to keep her in New Orleans.

"Was I ever anything more to you than a means of survival?" he demands, tears beginning to wet his eyes,

"Another one of your famous ploys? I knew you were self-obsessed egomaniac but I assumed…would it have been so hard to act a _little_ more convincingly?!"

She clambers sluggishly from the bed now and approaches him with a nightgown the same colour of the dress she wore that day five hundred years ago when they played in the garden.

She's always used that colour to manipulate him and, like a fool, he'd allowed himself to think it was a romantic gesture.

"Elijah, my love…you're acting crazy, of course I…"

The sound of his hand connecting with her face is followed by a chorus of lightning shooting across the sky. Katherine cries out as she falls to her knees and he has to clench his hands into fists to keep them at his side.

She is poison.

_And he can't breathe._

"Leave" he orders in a strangled tone, "I cannot stand to look at you, to be tricked by you again. _Leave_!"

"Elijah" her hand touches his thigh, "Please…just calm down…I…_no_"

She screams the last word as he buries a hand in her hair and drags her kicking and fighting from the room, "I told you to get out!"

The rain is falling hard now, drenching them both as he pulls her along the gallery and into the courtyard but it does not ease the pain in his chest so he does not let it stop him.

_She_ is the _reason_ that he cannot breathe.

She is shouting his name, begging for him to stop, to be reasonable but he is tired of being the reasonable one or the noble, dignified one.

What has being a good man ever got him? Except a woman that does not truly love him.

He walks her through the archway and tosses her onto Bourbon St, her nightgown sopping wet and stuck to her skin, her bare foot catches on a piece of broken glass and cuts the sole and she is sobbing.

He can't bring himself to care. Turning his back on her is remarkably easy.

Her screams are lost in the crack of the lightning and he tunes her out, standing in the courtyard and tilting his head back, allowing the rain to soak him to the core.

Soon he will feel better.

* * *

A/N- The song Katherine sings is Masquerade from Phantom of the Opera


	21. Farnese Klaus II Rebekah III Caroline X

A/N- This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

AA/N- To Homeboy who pointed out that I don't use proper punctuation in my speech, you're right, I have never noticed that before and it never comes up as an error on Microsoft Word so I don't know if it's an English US thing but I will try to correct that fro now on.

* * *

Giacomo Farnese remembers with vivid clarity the exact moment he met Katerina Petrova.

_It had been a summer's day and out of the desire for a poetic muse, he had decided to step outside of his bookstore and take a walk through the nearby green._

_He had strode leisurely across the paved path at Woldenberg Park, pointedly ignoring the Mississippi River with its distasteful colouring and smell. _

_He had been deep in his musings about the beauty of crystal clear rivers when his eyes had fallen upon the beauty standing on the grass before him._

_She was a vision. With her long hair flowing in curls down her back and a white lace dress that showed her lovely bare arms and olive skin. Her back was to him but when she turned slowly on her wedge heels he sees that she had large eyes and such a pretty face, with such a sweet, almost modest blush._

_He realises mere seconds later that she wasn't blushing when her knees began to tremble and her eyelids fluttered closed. Using supernatural speed, Giacomo caught her as she fell down in a swoon, her hair tumbling over his shoulder as her heart pounded away beneath her breast._

_"Hey man" a random passerby came up, "Is she okay?"_

_He shook his head, utterly perplexed as to human ailments, "I am afraid I have no idea."_

_The Good Samaritan reaches into his bag, _

_"Here" he holds out a bottle of water, "It's over a hundred degrees today and she looks sunburnt, I'd say its dehydration or heat stroke."_

_One hundred degrees? Ah yes, Fahrenheit._

_As a vampire, Giacomo was incapable of feeling either hot or cold, which had come quite in handy in the centuries before air conditioners._

_He gently lifts the woman up into his arms and looks about for shade, finding none, he determines that she would recover better indoors and carries her swiftly back to his bookstore, glad that nobody on the street thinks to challenge him as to his intentions towards the unconscious woman._

_She begins stirring as he lays her down on the couch and her eyes are flickering open when he pours the water into a glass for her,_

_"Greetings" he bows politely and offers her the glass, "May I offer you refreshment?"_

_She swallows and he admires her long, thin neck, _

_"Where am I?" she asks in a sweet, albeit husky voice, "How did I get here?"_

_"I'm afraid you had a fainting spell in the park." he explains, "I brought you to my bookstore so that you might recover."_

_"A fainting spell?" she raises her eyebrows, "I haven't fainted in five hundred years"_

_Giacomo emits a noise of surprise, "Are you a witch then, milady?"_

_She shakes her head and quickly cradles it with her hand, "Katherine Pierce."_

_Ah._

_"You've heard of me then" she teases, a flirtatious smile on her lips, "Good, I'd hate to think my reputation hadn't survived past the Age of Enlightenment in Italy."_

_He had heard of her. Of the woman who was the enemy of the Original brothers, the one who'd broken the hearts of men and women alike across the world. He'd heard of her cruelty, her cunning and her destructiveness. However, he cannot ascribe that infamy to the woman in front of him, the young woman with such beauty and warmth in her eyes, so fragile, so sweet._

_By the time her lover, the Original Elijah, comes for her, it is already too late. Giacomo is watching her every movement with adoration, his heart jumping even as she greets the other man with a tender kiss._

_Then again, what is love worth if there is not despair haunting its every step?_

* * *

Giacomo has known a great deal of despair from loving Katerina Petrova, but he continues to love her still, although there are moments where even for him it is difficult.

Tonight had been one of those moments, to have her turn on him and lash him with her tongue. To have her beautiful face contorted with anger and distrust as she looked upon him. To have her accuse him of besmirching her reputation and being a danger to her.

As if he wasn't her greatest champion and dearest friend. As if he hadn't been caring for her daughter as if she was his own.

He takes his leave from the party almost immediately after this uncouth display and retreats to his home, uncorking three two hundred year old bottles of wine and drinking them far too quickly for vintage that rare and exquisite. He sits on his bed, still in his clothes and closes his eyes, losing himself to fantasies about the woman he loved who scorned him so easily.

Usually, he would feel guilt and shame over any dream of Katerina in which she was not fully clothed and engaged only in chaste actions with him, but tonight he imagines her naked and spread out over his bed, whispering sweet nothings and covering every inch of him with kisses as her hair slides across his skin.

He is so deep in his thoughts that at first he is certain that he hears her voice only in his mind. Until it is accompanied by the loud collision of a heavy object against his wooden door.

"Giacomo!" her voice can barely be heard over the pouring rain, "Giacomo let me in!"

She sounds terrified.

He's on his feet and flashing to the door, his mind running through various scenarios from another hurricane to an all-out supernatural war.

But when he pulls back the door it's to find that he gravely underestimated the severity of the situation.

Katerina Petrova is standing on his porch soaked through to the skin, her hair hanging limp and the smell of blood on her, she was wearing only the tiniest of silk nightgowns and it was clung to every curve with little more modesty than a scarf. She has wrapped her arms around herself as she shivers violently, barely able to keep herself upright,

"Please" she begged sobbing, "_Help_ me."

When Giacomo could finally fathom that he hadn't stumbled into a nightmare and that this scenario was taking place in reality he immediately stood back to allow her to stumble inside. She was barely over the threshold before she collapsed and he caught her in his arms as she sank against the hallway wall.

"My dearest lady," he murmurs in horror, "What has happened?"

Her wits have temporarily left her and she appears to be on the verge of hysteria so Giacomo picks her up and carries her to his sitting room, placing her on the couch as gently as possible as he hurries about for towels and blankets. Cautiously he reaches for her and when she offers no existence, staring off into the distance he begins drying her off. He follows the scent of blood and sees a deep gash on the sole of her foot,

"I…cut myself on glass" she informs him numbly, "I can't remember if I removed it or not."

She hadn't. He can still see the shard wedged deeply into the skin but it is quick work to pull it free and stem the bleeding with pressure.

"Were you attacked?" he asks, wondering what could possibly have happened that the Princess of New Orleans was seeking refuge with him. She'd have to be moved of course, if enemies were after her, he would be the second person atop their list.

"I…" she reaches up and brushes the hair off her face and he can instantly see that she's been struck with cruel brutality, the mark is large and flaming red but already turning a grotesque shade of purple.

"I got home from the party and had a glass of champagne," she begins and he finds the last remnants of wine from his unseemly binge earlier to pour into a glass. If chaos is about to be unleashed on the Quarter they really do not have the time for this.

And by all of God's Angels and the Devil's Demons _where_ was Nadia?

He goes straight for the landline and dials the number for her phone, so intent on seeing her safe that he doesn't immediately notice when Katerina stops recounting her night and begins trembling and stammering.

"I should be preparing…something…I have a drop bag in Woldenberg Park." she tells him this as she tries to stand only to collapse back onto the couch,

He takes her hand, "I'll go get it" he promises, wondering if they'll even have time for that,

"However, my dear lady first you need to explain to me…"

"I can't!" she shouts, flinging the glass of wine away, it lands on the carpet and rolls towards the disused fireplace, thankfully with only a few drops remaining,

"I…I was feeling tired, I fell asleep in the chair at midnight…I woke up in the bed to Elijah screaming and saying such things that I could hardly think…"

_Elijah?_

The Original Elijah had _screamed_ at her?

Of course Giacomo had known the pair were having issues but he hadn't considered the possibility that Elijah would be so uncouth as to yell at the woman he called his 'Darling Ekaterina'

In fact, the only time Giacomo had ever known Elijah to act unchivalrously had been the afternoon following his revelation of his love to Katerina. She had fled his bookstore and mere hours later Elijah had come in to fetch her purchase with the scent of sex heavy on his skin and his lips bearing the nectar of…

Well, he had made it quite clear where Katerina's affections lay.

"I couldn't…I was so tired" she continues, "I could barely understand what was happening, I told him he was acting crazy and he…he hit me."

These last words fall from her lips like lead weights and Giacomo tries not to let the horror show on his face.

The disgust.

She frowns and runs a hand through her soaking wet hair, obviously replaying the scenario in her head.

"I was so sure that I'd fallen asleep in the armchair" she muses,

"But I must have gone to bed without him…which must be why…we never go to bed without one another" she adds as explanation.

And that explanation was not the worst reason in the world Giacomo had ever heard for beating a woman but it was definitely second or third.

The bleeding in her foot has slowed to a trickle and he exhales softly as he crouches down before her,

"Dear Katerina" he says softly, "Are you the only one in danger, was anyone else attacked tonight or is there some battle currently underway?"

Her frown deepened and her shoulders slumped as she glanced about the room,

"I don't think so?" she sounds so uncertain, "No more than usual anyway"

She still shivering from the cold and he resolves to run her a bath,

"He told me to leave" she whimpers, "Do you think he'll exile me? Revoke my freedom?"

What she'd had hadn't been freedom in any form but a glorious, gilded captivity, however that is not the truth she needs to hear tonight.

"I am so tired" she continues and by the time the bathtub is full she has sunk into a deep sleep on his couch.

Giacomo settles for standing guard over her and calls Nadia to tell her to search for her mother's drop bag in her favourite park. He does not go into detail or offer any reason behind this request but when Nadia turns up on his doorstep a mere two hours after her mother, she clearly has been informed of the situation.

"The story is all over the Quarter" she tells him grimly, "That Elijah Mikaelson threw my mother out onto a public street completely naked, and she was seen running away"

"She was wearing her nightgown at least" he contradicts, although the silk was hardly better than utter nudity,

"We'll have to leave" she decides, "As soon as my mother is able to walk"

"As soon as I can find us a car we'll be gone" he promises.

Of course neither friend nor daughter were aware that upon her arrival in New Orleans, Elijah had compelled Katerina not to leave the city without his express permission.

She was cast down and her world was shattering around her but she was also trapped within the city's confines.

* * *

When Klaus Mikaelson woke up that morning, on the couch with very little memory of how he'd managed to pass out there when he had a very gorgeous woman upstairs in his own bed, he hadn't realised just how violently the world had shifted on its axis.

An hour later and he was still struggling to come to terms with it.

His brother had apparently become a madman who, a mere eight hours ago, had thrown the love of his long, undead life onto the street as if she were garbage.

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" he roared at his brother,

"Setting aside the fact that Katherine loves you because that's apparently a moot point at this stage, did you really just destabilize our rule and give a very duplicitous woman a very good reason to hate us and join our enemies?"

Elijah is sitting at the breakfast table, dressed almost casually, with no jacket and tie and Klaus wonders if his brother is in the midst of a nervous breakdown.

"You answered your own question Niklaus" he sighs tiredly as he reaches for the tea pot, "Katherine is a very duplicitous woman, evidenced by the fact that she uses aliases as casually as others use nicknames. Loving someone so secretive is exhausting and I simply no longer wished to do so, especially when she was being unfaithful to me"

Klaus rolled his eyes and threw his head back, "You know as well as I that there was no grounds to those rumours, what proof is there that Katherine was cheating on you? There isn't a man in the Quarter stupid enough to put horns on your head"

Elijah gives him a disparaging glance, "No supernatural man perhaps, but the humans know us only as wealthy socialites"

The humans.

No one who has a vampire lover would take a human one instead. Stamina was a tremendous thing, as was supernatural speed and acquired knowledge.

But could he possibly convince his brother of that?

"You are being a fool" he seethes, only to see that he might as well be talking into the wind.

"Perhaps," he allows "However I am no longer a fool in love which makes me slightly more intelligent."

"For this is how it is with our family." he suddenly raises his voice and looks up, over his brother's head and Klaus turns to see Caroline standing on the gallery, pale in the morning light, her hair loose and her face free of make-up. She's gazing down upon them and he imagines her in that moment as an angel observing the demons and being disgusted by their actions.

Elijah continues his discourse, "We love someone passionately until the very moment that we don't and then we throw them out like the silly worthless garbage that they are."

_Silly_.

That wasn't a barb meant for striking Katherine.

Caroline flushes at the insult and releases a strangled laugh as she tries to write off the situation as a joke. Klaus reaches for the silver butter knife on the table and holds it up in warning to his brother, he turns away in scorn when he sees that Elijah is ignoring him and decides to see to Caroline instead.

* * *

Rebekah huffed in annoyance as Erik once again turned his face away from Ollie and refused to take the fruit,

"Come on little moppet" she sighed, pulling her nephew onto her lap,

"It's breakfast time and you need to eat. Fruit is yummy"

Without warning she takes the fork Ollie was holding and slips it into her own mouth, accidentally cutting her lip and fighting back her wince as she did so. The apple is sickly sweet and she suddenly understands why Erik might be put off his food,

"Are we sure this is ripe and organic?" she asks her boyfriend, "It tastes like it's been dipped in sugar"

"Uh" Ollie shrugs and scratches the back of his neck, "I don't know…I grabbed it from the kitchen so I assume it's edible"

With a smirk Rebekah shakes her head, "In the Original household that could make it older than sliced bread"

She stands up and hoists her fussing nephew onto her hip,

"Let's go find you something else" she sing-songs and walks carefully through the compound to the kitchen just as Erik's nanny came rushing in the door.

Erik's response was humiliating. "Ina!" he squealed eagerly, holding out his chubby arms, "Ina _now_!"

Mina or Tina or whatever the woman's name was all but snatched her nephew from Rebekah's arms,

"Hey sweetie" she cooed, "How are you this morning? Are you hungry? Let's have breakfast and then go to the park okay"

Erik giggled and nodded, "Woof-Woof!"

The babysitter cast a nervous glance at Rebekah, "Yes, there'll be woof-woofs at the park"

Rebekah was watching her, trying to figure out why she sensed the discomfort in the woman before she spoke up, "Do you want to come with us?"

She smiles at the friendly invitation and almost accepts before Erik shakes his head and her mouth turns down as she tries to swallow the rejection,

"No thank-you" she snaps, "Unlike some people _my_ time is actually valuable"

Turning on her heel, Rebekah swans out of the kitchen and goes in search of Ollie and the comfort she could find only in his arms.

Of course, she can't bloody well find it when Nik is dangling her boyfriend by his throat,

"If you" her brother ground out, "Or any of your pack go near _my_ son again without my permission, I will kill the bloody lot of you"

Rebekah screeches his name and throws him against the nearest wall, putting herself between brother and boyfriend, ready to defend Ollie from Nik's vicious outbursts.

"He's here because of me, Nik" she shouts, "I invited him and I trust him!"

Her brother has that look in his eyes that marks him as a stranger to her and to the beloved big brother she'd known during their human lifetime.

"Any man who climbs into bed with you is either a traitor or an idiot" he sneers, "So forgive me if I've misjudged him as a traitor but I'd just as soon not have a fool near my son either."

Rebekah inhales sharply at his casual cruelty, the way he offhandedly insults every man she's ever loved and her for choosing them, for the mere suggestion that she would endanger her nephew's wellbeing.

She loved that child. Even if he spurned her.

"Fine" she chokes out, "If you don't want us here, we'll leave."

She takes Ollie's hand and casts one last look at her brother, giving him the chance to take a step back and apologise.

He never has before and he doesn't now.

Instead, he seems more concerned with checking his phone rather than caring about his little sister.

She always has been a bloody afterthought for him.

* * *

"_We love someone passionately until the very moment that we don't and then we throw them out like the silly worthless garbage that they are."_

Those words play on an endless loop in Caroline's head.

_Silly_.

Elijah Mikaelson thought she was silly.

Just silly, stupid little Caroline Forbes. The girl who never said the right thing or did the smart thing, the girl who jumped into bed with a guy just to try and get him to stay.

She'd done that with Klaus as well. He'd barely recovered from Tyler torturing him and kidnapping Erik when she'd climbed on top of him and started kissing him.

She stands in his bedroom now, the place where she'd spent her first day of her winter break in New Orleans holding onto the headboard while Klaus took her from behind.

And about four days after that she'd lain on her stomach and moaned with enjoyment while he'd put his cock in her arse.

Trembling with humiliation and fear as she stares at that bed, she sniffs and runs her hands through her hair before grabbing her mini-suitcase from the large wardrobe and flicking it open.

Klaus stomps in just as she's packing up her toiletries and she purposefully lingers in the bathroom as she watches his reflection in the mirror out of the corner of her eye.

He's gazing down at her suitcase with a mixture of confusion and unhappiness in his expression and her heart breaks a little.

But is the man she's been living with all these months the real Klaus Mikaelson?

What had happened to the hybrid who'd terrorized Mystic Falls?

Had he simply gone into hibernation while he and his siblings apparently got along? Waiting patiently to emerge and start spilling blood the moment it suited him?

Caroline wasn't sure of the answer and didn't know entirely why she was asking these questions.

"Going to visit your mother, love?"

Caroline skips a step as she finally pushes herself out of the bathroom,

"Nope" she blurts out, "No…I…uh, just taking some of my stuff back to my apartment"

He visibly relaxes and she feels guilty, this is probably not what he needs right now.

"Hey, is Katherine okay?" she asks, "I tried to text her and she hasn't got back to me"

Klaus shrugs, "Best case scenario, she's laying low while she hatches a plan to burn everything Elijah loves to the ground. Worst case scenario, she's laying low while she hatches a plan to destroy us all"

He gives her a wry smile, "I'll find her later today, when I can do so without my brother finding out, and ensure she's alright"

Caroline walks forward and reaches up to kiss him on the cheek,

"Do you want to come with me?" she offers, "Stay at my place for a few days?"

Klaus quirks an eyebrow, "Go along to class, eat those dry noodles and wear those pillow-shoes?"

She smiles flirtatiously, "Have sex in small beds, library stacks, stairwells…"

"I have two mansions complete with beds, libraries and grand staircases, sweetheart." He argues and she sighs,

"That's true but" she breaks off and runs her fingers through her hair before closing her eyes and speaking,

"I want to get away from this toxicity, Klaus and I want to take you with me"

He pulls her into his arms and kisses the crown of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair and they stand pressed together for the longest time before he can bear to release her, holding her arms as he looks into her eyes,

"I'm the Vampire King, the Hybrid and a Mikaelson. If there is toxicity, Caroline, then it must be of my own making."

"Go" he urges her, "Go and enjoy being a normal student, plan parties and orgies and stay up all night with your peers as you discuss how you're going to change the world in ways that haven't yet been imagined and then look up the rising sun and see that everything you've ever wanted is possible."

She laughs and kisses him fiercely, throwing her arms around his neck.

"After this is all over, I'll come back to you" she promises, "I love you Klaus."

He has a shadow of a grin on his face, "I love you too, Caroline Forbes."

Which was why he had to let her go.

* * *

A/N- Told you so.


	22. Raina Farnese II Rebekah IV Francesca

A/N- Yes, it's been a while but since I last updated I've found myself moving across the world, starting a MA and- in less hectic news- taking part in National Novel Writing Month rewriting Alpha Female. However, I'm hoping to have my current stories on finished by the end of 2015 so I can get started on the new ones.

* * *

The supernatural society of New Orleans was reeling from last night's shocking news.

Friends, acquaintances and even enemies were ringing each other up or knocking on each other's doors to spread the tale.

Elijah Mikaelson had _beaten_ Katherine Pierce and thrown her out onto the street in nothing but the clothes she was wearing.

And according to an eyewitness, those clothes hadn't been all that much to begin with.

So they were gossiping, some taking delight in the famous seductress' downfall, others looking on with consternation, wondering if they were going to see a return to the old days when the Original family was at war with one another and those caught in the crossfire- whether innocent or no- were almost guaranteed a painful death.

However, for the rest of the world, it was a regular day.

The weak, winter sun was shining, humans were going about their daily business and to many, Raina just looked like a normal babysitter, taking little Erik for a walk in the park.

And she would just happen to strike up a conversation with the three people standing up ahead, each clutching coffees like their lives depended on it.

Probably having all woken up early and not planning on sleeping until they knew the story in its entirety.

Well…as much as they could make sense of anyway.

Beside her, Erik babbled in excitement and ran over to the Caucasian Sheppard puppy that was sitting dutifully at Cary's feet. As a rule, dogs hated werewolves, but this puppy had been bred by a pack mate and had been trained for months now to accept the little boy.  
Raina allows herself a small smile at Erik's happiness before turning to the adults.

Cary, Annabelle and Scarlet.

One of these people she trusted, the other two…well, desperate times.

"I don't know what happened," Raina says by way of greeting, "No-one does, we all knew that they were having trouble but we thought it was regular cold-shoulder, changing relationship status on Facebook to complicated trouble, not throw-her-out-into-the-street-practically-naked trouble."

"What the _hell_ is wrong with him?" Annabelle asked, "He's supposed to be the _chivalrous_ Original, not an asshole."

"The chivalrous Original is still an Original," Scarlet glowers, "All monsters under very thin facades."

Annabelle looks to Raina, "Do you know where Petrova is?"

She shrugs, "If I had to guess? A thousand miles away from here and not slowing down any."

Scarlet grimaces as she sips her coffee, "That will turn the power structure of New Orleans on its head. Without the Princess, the King and Prince will be exposed to the shadows."

The three of them looked at her for an instant before moving on. They had grown accustomed to her casually spoken prophecies, which could range from slightly unintelligible to vaguely terrifying. She could tell when they didn't comprehend her and send them a translation via text later, when the image cleared enough in her head to be written down.

Cary crouched down as Erik tugged on his pants and held his arms out for the pack heir,

"Hey buddy." He murmured, running a hand through his hair,

"What about you? How's Uncle Elijah treating you?"

Raina freezes for a second before forcing herself to appear relaxed. She hadn't told Cary about Elijah slapping Erik, so far it had been a one-off incident and if she did tell him, he'd want to take Erik away to safety or reveal himself to Klaus.

And right now, Klaus would probably respond to surprises with decapitation.

"Woof-woof." Erik chortled, bumping Cary on the nose.

"That's me." Cary manages a smile and gives him a quick hug.

"What about Caroline Forbes?" he asked, looking up,

"She packed a bag this morning and moved back to her dorm to focus on her schoolwork," Raina reported dutifully,

"She and Klaus don't seem to be breaking up."

"What should we do?" she asks, turning to Annabelle and Scarlet.

"Because I don't think this is just a blip in the peace but the beginning of a long period of trouble."

Annabelle glanced down, looking somewhat guilty, "I can continue monitoring the situation, keep an eye on Caroline and maybe intercede if she's in any danger, but otherwise…"

"Petrova's about to be falling down the hill and landing where she first began." Scarlet intoned, her eyes going dark as she once again prophesised,

"She will turn to the one who left her unwillingly and walk across the water."

Raina rolled her eyes in annoyance and turned to Cary to see if he understood any better than she did.

He shrugged, "Maybe she's staying in the city after all?"

* * *

"She is _not_ staying in this city!"

Giacomo started at the volume of that declaration and glanced quickly over his shoulder, reaching behind him to close the door to his bedroom where Katerina Petrova had finally succumbed to her exhaustion. He'd roused her from the couch shortly before dawn, entreating her to bathe and rest in his bed. She was curled up now under his cotton duvet, her hair splayed across the pillow, her body curled in on itself protectively and the duvet pulled up to her chin. With all her make-up, jewels and couture clothes removed, she looked as young and as innocent as her nineteen human years could render her.

Except of course, for the violently vibrant bruise that painted her face and made Giacomo feel physically ill every time he looked at it and considered the situation under which that injudicious blow had been dealt.

Even though he knew that it would mean his death, he wanted to call out Elijah Mikaelson to a duel, to publicly shame him for his actions and for the wrongs he had committed. Yet he knew that if he were to do so that it would condemn Katerina forever as a harlot in the eyes of New Orleans supernatural society and perhaps even their world at large, people would believe the rumours of her infidelity and no action on her part would disprove their self-righteous judgement.

The only thing he can do for her now was protect her and her daughter,

"Keep your voice down, signorina," he entreats Nadia in a whisper, "We don't wish to wake her yet."

Nadia only snaps her fingers at his words, "We should have left hours ago!" she hisses,

"The sooner we leave the safer we'll be."

Nadia had been pacing restlessly since the moment Giacomo had taken Katerina to his bathroom to wash and then tucked her into bed, frequently glaring at her phone and the rising sun. And Giacomo cannot help but notice that Nadia's movements, her posture and her speech had all altered slightly, become more enticing and yet regal at the same time. He suspects that this moment of trouble has recalled the woman Nadia was during her human years.

"I understand your desire to leave town," he assures her,

"But I have been thinking, if Katerina leaves now, she will never be able to return and perhaps…perhaps last night was an anomaly and even as we speak, Elijah is feeling remorse and seeking her out."

He knows that won't have any calming effect on Katerina's daughter, the thought of Elijah seeking out her mother turns her face to stone and fills her with rage; he knows this and, in the darkest part of himself, he feels a thrill of satisfaction that if Nadia had to choose between the Original vampire and himself in regards to her mother's hand, he- Giacomo- would be the victor.

For once.

"I don't care if he's wandering the streets rending his clothes in grief and flagellating," she snaps,

"He and his entire family of freaks is a threat to my mother and we need to run."

"Did you ever run when you were alive?" he challenges, "No matter how much danger you were in, did you ever try to flee?"

She scowls and is about to respond when Giacomo hears a change in Katerina's breathing patterns, the sound of the bedclothes rustling and her small exhale as she propped herself up on an elbow,

"I can't run." she murmurs groggily, her voice low but both vampires hearing her and Nadia pushes past him to sweep into the bedroom,

"We have to run," she argues, "If we stay…"

"Dŭshterya*," Katerina interrupts gently, "I'm not saying that I don't want to run, every instinct in my body is telling me to get the hell out of town, but what I'm saying is that I _can't_ run. When I first came to New Orleans, Elijah…compelled me,"

Her eyes drop to the duvet in her shame and Giacomo's hand grips the doorknob in mingled horror and outrage,

"Do you remember exactly what he ordered of you?" he asks in a strangled voice and her eyes flicker up to him, her chocolate brown orbs entrapping him,

"Word for word," she sighs, "He said _'You will stay here in New Orleans with me Katerina…you shall serve Klaus and I loyally…you will not leave this city without my spoken permission…you will never run away from me ever again.'_ Not much room for manoeuvring there." She finishes, shifting to sit up and looking to Nadia apologetically,

"I'm sorry I never told you," she murmurs, "But…I hoped that it wouldn't be an issue."

Nadia huffs and crosses her arms, "Well it is, New Orleans isn't big enough to keep you hidden from an Original, how exactly do you plan to keep out of sight?"

"Easy," Katerina kicked back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed, "I'm not going to."

Giacomo frowned as he watched her tentatively place both feet on the ground, trying to stand before sitting back down hurriedly with a wince,

"Firstly, I'm going to need a nurse to stitch up this wound," she announces, "And then, I'm going to call my favourite beauticians and have them make a house call," she gestures to her face with a rueful grin, "I'm guessing this is going to require a lot of gold and pearl facials to make me presentable and then, I am going out for lunch."

He opens his mouth to argue, or perhaps gently suggests that she perhaps consider the ramifications of her plans but there's a challenging, predatory gleam in her eye and a smirk on her face that has him realise that he is finally meeting Katherine Pierce,

"Elijah is only the latest in a long line of people that have tried to break me and failed," she shrugs her delicate shoulders,

"And now?...I'm going to show New Orleans what happens if you bet against me."

* * *

"She's probably already fled the city like a cowardly whore," Rebekah trilled in triumph as she lay sprawled in Ollie's bed, her naked body stretched atop the sheets as he fondled her tenderly,

"Finally, my brother is free from that tramp."

Ollie hums and pinches her nipple, causing her to purr in delight, "How about you?" he asks, as he turns her towards him,

"When will you be free?"

She frowns with a little smirk, "What do you mean? I'm free."

He snorts and quirks an eyebrow, "Free from your brothers? Free to be happy and choose who you wanna date?" he lifts a hand and gestures around him,

"You have to sneak out here just to be with me without harassment or Klaus threatening to tear out my liver."

They were in Ollie's trailer in the Bayou, with the sunlight filtering through the brown curtains, casting a yellow light on their surroundings, on the plastic bench tops and the white door that led to the tiny bathroom with the shower that seemed to double as an oubliette.

"Well you could always move into the city," she argues and he claps a hand on her thigh,

"I already did, after the first time you bumped your knee against the wall," he reveals, "I got a room in a house."

Rebekah sits up in confusion, "Then why the bloody hell are we here and not there?"

"Because the house belongs to Francesca Guerrera," he explains, "She offered me a great deal and I couldn't let it pass by but I was worried that she was using me to get to you or something so I decided to keep bringing you here but…and this is just from an outsider perspective but you don't seem happy living with your brothers."

Out of habit, Rebekah opens her mouth to argue with him when the energy to do so suddenly disappears, leaving in its place, bone deep exhaustion.

Was Rebekah happy living with her brothers?

They had two main houses that they lived in, in New Orleans. The Bourbon St manor and the mansion in the Garden District, the idea being that they would have plenty of room for the three of them plus Caroline and Katherine. Yet, all it seemed like to her was that she would turn up at one property just in time to see the other four had left or found them in the middle of something they hadn't even bothered inviting her to.

And even when she had been involved, she'd found herself being overlooked, even worse, with all the recent drama, Elijah had been cold and distant and Nik had only ever spoken to her about Katherine bloody Pierce or to accuse her of conspiring against them.

Rebekah had lived with her brother long enough to know that suspicion led to a silver dagger.

So no. She wasn't happy, she was far from happy living with her brothers.

She trusted that with Katherine Pierce out of the picture Elijah would soon be his old self again, the big brother, the caring man whose main concern was the welfare of his family and who would keep Nik in place as much as possible.

Still, until that time, it would be nice to be able to play house with her boyfriend, in someplace other than a trailer in the middle of a swamp.

* * *

"Now is our chance! We have to drive her out of the city!"

Francesca barely tried to resist the urge to scream as Celeste swept around her office like an energetic buzzard, bouncing off the walls and consistently nattering away when all the woman wanted was an hour or two of peace.

Not that she would be getting it any time soon.

Even with one foot in the human, regular world, Francesca's day had been as chaotic with people wanting to know about the young woman who had been thrown naked onto Bourbon St last night, and the rumours had been growing wilder by the minute.

As it was, the police had come around asking if it was true if a seventeen-year-old girl had been gangbanged in the middle of the busiest street in the city and then murdered and dumped in a gutter.

Idiots.

It was almost embarrassing how easily she was able to fool them, to fool them all.

But it'd be even easier if Celeste stopped acting like an idiot.

"We don't need to drive Katherine from the city," Francesca argued as she decoded an email from one of her suppliers,

"Elijah will probably do that on his own, or if she's smart she'll run to save her life, there's nothing I need you to do at the moment." she glances up quickly to meet Celeste's penetrating gaze and wonders if there's a slight hint of madness in there as well?

"You can go." Francesca prompts when Celeste doesn't move but the witch stomps up to the desk and slams both hands down,

"Never forget Correa, you and I are equals in this venture, we're going to destroy the Original family but only if we're working together!"

Francesca snarls, "I'm aware of that, but do you perhaps need reminding? You're close to overplaying your hand with Elijah and if you move in on him too quickly, people are going to realise that something is wrong with him. You don't recover from the loss of a five hundred year love overnight."

With a growl of frustration, Celeste pushes away before spinning back to her, her hair flying but before she can issue an ultimatum or a threat, they hear the sound of the front door opening and boots coming down the wooden hallway.

The witch only just has time to throw herself into the chair before the desk and pick up Francesca's glass of scotch before Rebekah Mikaelson swans in.

"Hello," she announces cheerily, "So sorry to barge in but we need to have a little chitchat."

It must truly be a gift to be able to sound so airy and dangerous at the same time.

Francesca grins, "Of course, but only if you plan to gossip right after."

Rebekah smirks, "Very well then, let's get to it shall we? Why exactly did you rent a room to my boyfriend?"

Francesca's hairs had been standing on end and her spine had been almost painful with the electricity running from her neck down to her toes, she'd been forced to lock her feet in place lest her knees shake and give her away.

Now she smiles and forces herself to walk casually to her wet bar, pouring Rebekah and herself a drink,

"I did it for you," she lies smoothly, "And for me as well."

She walks across the room and hands the vampiress the glass, "Alliances are everything in this town, anyone who tries standing alone ends up dead on their knees, you and I have got along well so far, so I didn't see why we couldn't work together for our mutual benefit."

Rebekah raises an eyebrow skeptically but takes the drink, "What do you have in mind?"

The complete destruction of your family.

Francesca shrugs, "Honestly? Nothing much for the moment, except a heads up for if…or when the situation in the supernatural world starts going nuclear. My enterprise is less than legal and while that's usually a human concern, violence in your world tends to spill over into mine and disrupt business."

The Original sister sips at her bourbon, "I can do that…anything in particular you wish to know now?"

Francesca tilts her head and feigns naivety for a moment, not realising how out of place the attempted innocence looked in her powersuit,

"I heard Caroline Forbes moved out of Bourbon St last night," she says after a few seconds, deliberately not focusing on the biggest news of the day, "But I assume she and your brother are still madly in love?"

Rebekah snorted, "You think Caroline Forbes loves my brother? She's a social climber, he's as high as she can get."

"Poor Klaus," Celeste intones sympathetically and Francesca glares at her in annoyance, having forgot her presence entirely but thankfully, Rebekah doesn't seem to mind,

"My brothers have never been smart when it comes to love," she sighs before looking around,  
"Ollie will be moving in later today and I expect that I'm going to be spending a lot of time here, at least until he and I have something more permanent."

Francesca hadn't been aware that Rebekah Mikaelson's boyfriends had any permanent state beyond death by Klaus Mikaelson's hands but she wisely stays silent until the Original vampire is off her property.

"You're going to have to be more careful about coming around now," she warns Celeste,

"But, if you need something to do, locate Miss Bennett, convince her to contact Caroline Forbes and reveal her pregnancy, lure the blonde out of our town and away from Klaus Mikaelson."

Celeste looks confused, "I thought we were going to use her against Klaus?"

Francesca nods, "Oh we are, but first we're going to break his heart."

* * *

*Bulgarian transliteration for Daughter


	23. Katherine V Caroline X Rebekah V

A/N- Here we go, I know it's been a while and I apologize but this is an intense story with a lot of different threads that I've got to keep hold of.

* * *

"I'm not sure about this, dearest lady." Giacomo tries again as Katerina eases herself down onto the couch and begins the lengthy process of easing her bandaged foot into her boot.

In the next room, the beauticians were packing up their tools, as utterly silent now as they had been when Katerina had showed them her bruised face and asked them to fix it for her.

And Giacomo had watched as the women hadn't floundered for even a second, just reaching into their case and drawing out numerous creams, masks and gels, taking their turns applying them to Katerina's face as they wrote down instructions for how best to hide her injuries from the world.

He suspects that this isn't the first such house call they had made.

They had done their job successfully enough however, Katerina's face had been a hideous mess of multi-coloured bruising and now, the swelling had gone down and only green now marred her beautiful features.

"That's because you are a good person," Katerina tells him with a flirtatious wink,

"Unlike the rest of us."

He opens his mouth to deny this but before he can she sighs and stands up to look into the mirror, turning her back to him,

"Elijah and I are many things to many people, Jack," she sighs,

"But neither of us could ever be called good unless we're being compared to monsters."

She begins applying her mascara, leaning into the mirror and opening her mouth in the bizarre way that women did when applying eye make-up,

"If nothing else, we're survivors, and I am going to survive this the only way I know how- by raising hell."

He helps her into her jacket but hesitates as she waits for him to open the door, and sighing, she looks back over her shoulder to him,

"If I don't show my face today I might never be able to again," she says quietly,

"And New Orleans was the first place I'd made my home in centuries, I can't lose that."

Giacomo wants to argue that home can be wherever one rests their head at night, that it doesn't have to be an entire city or even a neighborhood but four interchangeable walls in any place in the world. Yet how could he say such a thing to a woman who had run for her lie for five hundred years?

A woman he suspects had idealized the notion of home to almost unreachable proportions, equating it with a happiness and safety that she would never truly find.

So he escorts her to Arnaud's, where a table in the very centre of the restaurant was awaiting them. The beautiful dining area was filled with a mixture of human and supernatural creatures but all of them seemed to recognise Katherine Pierce and to know what had happened to her.

The humdrum noise of merry conversations and laughter that had greeted them upon their arrival now gave way to the buzzing sound of people whispering the scandal to each other frantically over their shrimp appetizers. As if by lowering their voices they could trick the intelligent woman into thinking that they were discussing anything else but her downfall.

Katerina never even blinked, she only strode across the room with the confidence of the young and beautiful that the Original family had never been able to beat out of her.

The chef came out personally to greet her as Giacomo pulled out her seat for her and the two converse flirtatiously in French, exchanging the daily specials and opinions as though they were witty jokes or innuendos. Katerina is glowing with sexual attractiveness and charm, tossing her hair and resting her chin on her hand as though she has no concern, no troubles at all but to be happy and enjoy the day.

And her façade was so impressive that Giacomo _almost_ believed her.

Until the witch Sabine found them.

The woman sashayed into the restaurant as though she owned it, her nose in the air and dressed in a regal purple suit. Katherine had her back to the woman but she stilled as she approached before visibly forcing herself to relax and to sip her cocktail,

"I don't recall meeting you," she says, not even bothering to turn in her seat, clearly shocking Sabine who must have been hoping for the element of surprise,

"I assume you know who I am."

Giacomo watches with interest as the woman's hands clench into fists before she glances around the restaurant, at the tables filled with their avid audience and he wants to take his butter knife in hand and jam it into the woman's throat.

If she wants so badly to make a spectacle, there were ways to achieve that goal without the humiliation of his dear friend.

But he hesitates a moment too long and the woman clears her throat and speaks,

"I'm here on behalf of a friend," she announces loudly, "Elijah Mikaelson."

Katerina's grip on her glass tightens infinitesimally but she maintains her composure, "Funny, I know all of Elijah's friends and he's never mentioned you."

She twists in her seat and runs her eyes over the woman, from her hair down to her shoes and gives a derisive sniff,

"Are you sure the word you're looking for isn't _'Thirsty'_?"

Someone in the corner twitters in amusement but the rest of their audience remains deathly quiet, determined to hear every single word spoken between the two women.

Sabine glowers at her but doesn't back down, "Elijah Mikaelson wants you out of New Orleans by this evening."

_What?!_

Giacomo's eyes fly to Katerina, his hand reaches for her, to steady her and to comfort her yet she doesn't appear to need either. Instead, there's a savage look of triumph on her face.

Placing her finger flat on the edge of the table, she stands and pivots with extreme grace to face the woman, offering several prolonged seconds of silence before she lifts one shoulder in a delicate shrug,

"If Elijah wants me to leave town then I shall leave town," she declares in a nonchalant voice,

"But," she adds in a tone of feigned naïveté,

"He'll have to remove the compulsion he placed on me first."

One or two audience members remember to give a theatrical scandalized gasp but the rest are dumbstruck by the news and Giacomo can understand why.

Elijah had never denied having fallen in love with Katerina all those centuries ago and their passionate reunion had been the striking of two lightning bolts, bright in the stormy sky and blinding to all foolish enough to look upon them.

No-one had suspected for even a second that the man whose eyes followed Katerina around the room with such adoration and who spoke of her with such passion could have compelled her into his arms.

Giacomo waits expectantly for her to elaborate, to explain that Elijah's compulsion had only been to confine her within the city, to ensure her loyalty to the Original family, that he hadn't forced her to couple with him against her will.

Yet, Katerina remains silent and he realises that she's lashing out at her fiancée. He had publicly humiliated her so she would return the favour tenfold.

Katerina's smile is all Katherine Pierce, "Do give him my regards and tell him to give me a call when he wants to remove the compulsion."

She waves her hand at the woman in a dismissive gesture and spins around to sink back into her seat just in time for the entrees to be brought out.

Katherine ignores Sabine as she raises her hands, giving an exaggerated moan of delight as she bites into the crab cake. Giacomo plays along, delving into his pork tenderloin robichaux but keeping one eye on the witch.

If she attacks Katherine here, in the French Quarter, it would surely be an act of war. Thrown out of the Mikaelson house she might be, but Katherine is still Elijah's fiancée in name at least and therefore, protected by the vampires of New Orleans.

Sabine obviously comes to the same realization as he because she storms out and Katherine is smiling viciously as she licks her fork with more tongue than strictly necessary.

"You've made an enemy there, my dear lady." he comments quietly as they eat but she only shrugs, two shouldered and less gracefully this time,

"As far as anyone knows, Elijah's single again, which means every woman in town is going to be after him, some of the men too. But first, they're going to want to take me out of the equation, as long as I'm around I'm a threat to their future happiness."

She sarcastically toasts him, "But if they think that I'm going to make it easy for them, they're very wrong."

* * *

Caroline couldn't concentrate.

She kept looking to her phone, to her social media pages, hell even to her email to see if she'd received any messages.

From Klaus, from Katherine, heck- she'd even take an update from Rebekah at this point.

She was a Type-A personality; she couldn't handle not knowing what was going on.

It was driving her _crazy_.

She knew that she was the one who'd clearly wanted to get away from the chaos of the French Quarter, but there was being geographically removed and there was having no idea what the state of the place was.

And if the last few years had taught her anything, it was that being out of the loop could be a fatal mistake.

Besides, Katherine was kind of her friend, well her frenemy anyway, she wanted to make sure that she was okay.

Sue her, she had a heart.

And there had been something weird about that night, something that she couldn't put a finger on.

Other than Elijah turning out to be an a-grade asshole _obviously_.

She is so caught up in her worrying that she doesn't see the flashing on her phone, alerting her to her new email for a solid five minutes but she jumps on it when she does.

And her heart stops.

Because the message isn't from Klaus or Katherine, Rebekah, Elijah or anyone in or around New Orleans but from Salem.

From Bonnie.

Bonnie Bennett.

The girl she hadn't spoken to since the day that she and every other vampire had had to flee Mystic Falls, with Matt and Jeremy in tow.

The girl whose father had led the hunt against them.

The girl who had sided against them.

The girl that Caroline still loved and missed.

She had made one mistake, and Caroline had made ten times that amount in one afternoon, in the forest with Klaus.

She deserved to be forgiven, especially considering everything she'd gone through.

Caroline opens the email and begins reading,

'_Care, _

_I'm writing to say that I miss you, that Salem sucks and that trying to make it through every day is getting harder and harder._

_I was pregnant but I miscarried, and as much as everyone tells me that it wasn't because of my magic, I haven't been able to do a successful spell since…well…before then, since I came back from the Other Side.  
I have no excuse for my actions, only that I was hurt, tired and so, so cold but I'm going to make it up to you, I promise._

_Come meet me in Salem, we'll do all the silly tourist things together, we'll visit all the 'spell' shops and see if we can freak some vacationing family out._

_Loving and missing you, _

_Bonnie'_

Salem.

Without really thinking, Caroline got on her phone and checked the distance between New Orleans and Salem.

Twelve hours plus change by car.

Three hours by plane.

But what did it matter anyway.

She wasn't going to Salem.

She couldn't.

Could she?

Salem may have once been the centre of witch persecution in America but since the early twentieth century it had been steadily repopulated by witches, not because of there being any natural power source for them there but out of sheer stubbornness and vindictiveness towards their enemies.

_'We are the granddaughters of the witches that you couldn't burn'_

Bonnie had loved that phrase and, had she ever considered life beyond Mystic Falls, beyond college, Caroline suspects that she might have wanted to settle down there.

But there was a huge difference between willingly settling in a place and being exiled there out of fear of the Original family and their vengeance.

And now, she was asking Caroline to visit her. To help her recover from her heartbreak, her miscarriage, to save her…

Or was Caroline just foolishly walking into another trap?

She couldn't blindly trust in her friends. Those days were done, she needed to talk this over with someone but with who?

Oh who was she kidding?! There was only one person in town she could trust not to read this and send a hitman against her best friend as a preventative measure.

With a sigh, she finds the number in her phone,

_"You've reached Katherine Pierce,"_ the bored voice answers,

_"Obviously I don't feel like talking to you right now but leave a message and I might decide to get back to you later."_

"Katherine, it's me," Caroline announces firmly as she grabs her handbag,

"I know you've got lots of problems at the moment but I need to talk to someone, so you need to tell me where you are stat!"

* * *

Giacomo's bookstore wasn't a financial necessity for him but rather, one he ran out of love for literature and as a means of giving supernaturals a quiet place to trade information. He had closed it for the morning but in the afternoon, after he and Katerina had returned from lunch, she had claimed her favourite seat by the window, opening a history book while he manned the till.

It was quiet and she was exhausted, and, warmed by the sun, she was beginning to doze when the last of the customers cleared out of the store.

She gave the handsome young man a flirtatious smile but he didn't meet her eyes, looking away guiltily and she frowned.

Her bruises must have been worse than she thought.

"I'm going upstairs," she tells Giacomo, "Run myself a bath."

He nods encouragingly and she leaves him perusing over his stands as she climbs the outside stairs, pausing with her hand on the wooden rail as her vision suddenly swims.

Water.

She wanted water.

_Lots_ and _lots_ of it.

A bathtub full. A swimming pool full. An ocean full.

Her head was spinning and her hand was burning hot.

She spins around with a gasp, looking down into the back courtyard and catches a glimpse of a woman before an explosion knocks her off her feet.

She lands against the wooden railing, her eyes instinctively shutting and her arms flying up to protect her face as the glass flies from the windows. In the moments afterwards, she waits anxiously for her hearing to return before she realizes that the roaring in her ears isn't caused by damage, but by fire.

The hungry roar of fire feeding on wood, on paper, the smoke that's already beginning to billow from the building.

Nadia.

_Where_ was her daughter?

Frantically she looked back to the apartment but the fire is somehow already on the second floor and far too dangerous for her, she's pushed backwards and backwards by the wall of heat, landing on the concrete and looking around hopelessly. There's fire in front of her and three insurmountable brick walls surrounding her. The smoke is now blocking the sun in the sky and filling the air around her, choking her as her skin burns. She staggers to the wall on her left and begins examining the bricks, trying to find a gap between them that she could climb or any kind of escape.

Otherwise, she would suffocate.

She had swum in a fountain of youth but she doubted that she could survive immolation.

Either way, she'd rather not find out.

"_Mother!_"

She looks up and sees her daughter on the edge of the brick wall, she jumps down and wraps her arms around her, leaping back up and then into the alleyway. Katherine's legs give out and Nadia sits her down quickly against the wall,

"We should not stay here." She warns her, running her hands over her to check for any sign of injury, her eyes filled with fear.

"No," Katherine struggles to speak, her lungs full of smoke, "You can't be seen with me,"

"Go," she orders, Quick now, before someone sees you."

Her daughter's face is filled with pain at the rejection but Katherine doesn't have time to be a good mother, whomever did this could still be there.

She waits until Nadia is gone before pushing herself to her feet and staggering into the street where a crowd has gathered, someone points to her and people rush forward, she reels back but the hands that lay on her are gentle and she's guided towards paramedics who begin treating her. The firetruck speeds into the street with the sirens blazing and she watches dumbly as the team begin tackling the blaze while one of the men seeks her out,

"Miss," he bends down to her level, "I'm told you were inside at the time of the fire?"

She nods, her neck aching and a blanket is placed over her shoulders, "Was there anyone else in the building?"

Oh God.

How could she answer? If Jack had been inside, his body would have been burnt to ash, vampires didn't survive fires, but if he had somehow managed to survive, they might still be able to save him…

"A man named Giacomo Farnese," she answers determinedly, "He was downstairs, in the shop, please save him."

He jogs back to his men and begins issuing orders and Katherine shakes off the paramedics and refuses hospital treatment, standing up, she allows herself to be led to the street corner, to the closest position deemed safe by the firemen and she waits.

And waits.

She waits as the building collapses under the weight of the flames. She waits as the firemen struggle to contain the burning. She waits as the sky turns grey and the rain begins pouring down, aiding the fight against the fire. She waits as the smoke pollutes everything. She waits as the paramedics try to argue with her once again for hospital treatment and then leave. She waits as the police arrive and the firemen finish their duty. She waits even as a kind man explains to her that they couldn't find anyone in the building and found no evidence of a body so perhaps she was mistaken?

No, Giacomo would never abandon her.

So she continues waiting, and waiting, until the sun sets on the ruined day, casting the street in tones of orange and red, making the asphalt shine and being met with the glare of the streetlamps. She's shivering with the cold and the shock, she's soaking wet and water from her hair is dripping down her back. But still she waits.

Until two hands land on her shoulders, startling her and she tenses, seeing the man in front of her and for a moment, only recognizing her enemy.

He had come for her.

His blue eyes bore into hers and he scans every inch of her,

"Are you alright?" he demands, his red lips giving vibrant life to the words but she can't comprehend them.

He shrugs off his leather jacket and drapes it over her shoulders, "Come on," he puts a hand on her back, "Let's go home, hmm?"

"No."

Her breath is the smoke of the fire and her voice is the ash and the dying embers,

"I don't have a home," she explains, "Not anymore. Perhaps never again."

Klaus grimaces, "A few drinks, a bath and…"

"Go to hell," Katherine snaps, anger fueling her, "Klaus, a man is dead because of me. He was killed because he protected me against Elijah. He was killed because he stood between me and…"

Sabine.

She draws a sharp breath and falls silent. If she told Klaus her suspicions, if she explained to him that a witch had killed one of his vampires, he would retaliate, he would kill Sabine and hang her body up as an example.

But his execution would be too merciful.

Sabine had murdered Giacomo and Katherine wasn't sure how she would avenge her friend's death yet, she only knew that when she did, her actions would live in infamy for a hundred years.

After this, no witch in the Quarter would dare cross her again.

She straightens her shoulders and pulls Klaus' jacket tighter around her body,

"I'm going to need a house in Algiers Point," she tells him, "On Morgan Street and I'm going to need it tonight."

He's not used to being given orders and opens his mouth to argue but she silences him with a look.

"Anything else?" he demands sulkily and she shrugs, stepping around him, "If you could get Caroline to pack up all my things, that'd be great."

"Where you going?" he asks as she walks away from him, strutting into the night,

"To get that drink." She calls, not looking back.

* * *

When Rebekah and Ollie walked into Rousseau's, they were waved down by Father Kieran.

"I take it you two have heard about the fire." He offers by way of greeting.

And even though Rebekah had spent the day helping Ollie move into Francesca's house, caught up in the fun of deciding where his possessions would go and how she would redecorate the room to make it theirs, she had heard what had happened. Francesca had called them into her office where it had been all over the news.

The bookstore had been burnt to the ground.

Giacomo Farnese was dead.

Six hundred years of life, of knowledge, of experience- gone in an _instant_.

Rebekah shivers and reaches for Ollie's hand,

"We did," she informs him in a haughty tone, "It was unfortunate."

Kieran snorts and sips at his bourbon, "It was deliberate, I've already spoken to the chief of police who told me that if he hadn't been aware of the existence of magic that he'd have suggested a bomb had gone off."

Ollie raises his eyebrows, "Huh, well, a six-hundred-year old vampire, I'm sure he had his enemies."

Kieran gives him a withering glance, "Listen, I don't know what's going on between your family and the witches or the vampires or whatever and I don't particularly care, honestly, keeping track of who's pissed off who at any given moment requires more flowcharts than I have time to make, but if there's going to be a war I'd appreciate a heads up so I can protect the human faction."

Rebekah sat down at the bar and flagged down the waitress, ordering herself a hurricane,

"You assume that this was an act of war but perhaps it was just an act of violence against Katherine Pierce?" she shrugs, "Who knows but I promise to keep you updated."

He nods in acknowledgement and throws down money on the bar, waving to his niece as she bussed drinks.

"Poor guy," Ollie sighs, sitting down next to her, his hand on her thigh, "The vamp I mean, to be killed that way."

"It was Katherine that killed him," Rebekah retorted, "That bitch is so poisonous that if a snake fought her, her venom would kill it instantly."

Cami heard her comment as she brought over the hurricane and clearly didn't take it well,

"I'd watch what you're saying," she told her under her breath, "Because she just walked in."

Rebekah spun in her seat to see that Katherine had indeed just walked into the bar.

She reeked of smoke and clearly just given herself the most basic of clean-ups, her hair was a mess of natural curls and her eyes were bloodshot, but she still strutted around the crowded tables as if she owned the place and walked straight to the bar, smacking her hand down on the wood in an exertive manner, ignoring Rebekah and Ollie.

"Absinthe please," she tells Cami, "Don't bother diluting it."

"Are you okay?" Cami asks, her voice thick with concern as she pours the shot.

"Full glass," Katherine interrupts, "There's only one way I plan to end this night and it isn't sober."

Still, she takes the shot and puts her heel on the stool, raising herself and turning to face the crowd,

"Some of you here know that we lost a good man today, Giacomo Farnese," she glances down and swallows,

"He was kind, generous, he held up chivalry as a standard for all to aspire to. He offered friendship and love to all who asked for it and some who probably didn't deserve it," she smirks ruefully, "He will be mourned and missed. To Giacomo!"

The supernaturals in the bar raised their glasses and echoed her toast, she threw down the shot and turned back to Cami, reaching over the bar for the full glass, "Cheers."

Only then did she look over to Rebekah, "What?" she challenged sarcastically,

"Not going to ask how I'm doing? And to think that we would have been _sisters_!"

Rebekah snorted, "I always knew my brother would come to his senses and kick you out, but I'm sorry your lover had to die."

"He wasn't my lover," Katherine hissed, "He was my _friend_ and he didn't have to die! He was murdered in cold blood and trust me, when I'm done, everyone involved is going to wish they'd burned with him."

Including _you_. Her tone seems to imply and Rebekah wonders if the bitch has gone insane,

"You think I had something to do with his death?" she fumes,

"You're mad, why would I kill him when I could just wait? After all, has any man ever survived loving you?"

Katherine laughs and shrugs, "More than survived loving you."

She throws her head back and drinks deep from the glass, draining it of absinthe in one go and behind her, Rebekah hears Ollie inhale sharply at the display,

"And more than will survive my revenge," Katherine adds as she slams the glass down onto the counter,

"So, if you were looking for a reason to drink yourself to death, Merry-fucking- Christmas in July."

She stands and shoulders her way past Rebekah, knocking her with all the strength in her weak human body,

"I really hope for your sake that you had nothing to do with Elijah kicking me out or Giacomo's death," she hisses,

"Because if you did then you took everything from me and made me the most dangerous person in this town because now, I have nothing left to lose"

* * *

Elijah Mikaelson raised his head as he heard the rather disturbing sound of footsteps above his head, in his bedroom.

This made no sense as there was no-one with permission to enter the apartment at Le Coeur Jardin. When he and Katerina had bought the house for the family, they had chosen the self-contained apartment on the top floor as their home, their space, where they could retreat from the rest of the world and find comfort in one another.

No-one, not even Erik had ever intruded upon their territory.

But now, there were footsteps above his head, where the walk-in wardrobe was.

If Katherine had come home, he would have to throw her out again.

His throat is tight at the thought and he _can't breathe_.

Snapping his book shut and tossing it across the room, he storms out of the second floor parlour and up the stairs, bursting into the apartment to see a suitcase on the bed and a flash of blonde hair darting back into the wardrobe.

"Miss Forbes," he growled, "Is there a reason you're in here without my permission?"

"Huh?" Caroline emerged with armfuls of lingerie which she dumped onto the bed before she began folding and packing carefully,

"Oh, uh, Katherine asked Klaus to ask me to bring her stuff to her new place, since…you know."

He quirked an eyebrow and leaned against the doorjamb, "What do I know?"

Caroline released a ragged sigh, "Seriously?! You want me to say it out loud? Fine, you're being a dick, Elijah. Katherine didn't cheat on you and she didn't deserve what you did to her and now, she's going through hell. Did you even know that she nearly died today?!"

Somewhere in his body, his blood ran cold, only a tiny part of him, the part that was foolish but still remained near his heart froze, "_What?!_"

Caroline nodded as she made her way back to the wardrobe, "Yeah, uh she was staying with Giacomo Farnese and the bookstore caught fire, she made it out but…he wasn't so lucky"

He hears the clunking of her gathering Katherine's shoe boxes as he tries to process what she had said.

"So Katerina's lover is dead?" he smirks with pleasure at the thought,

"Poor man, a few moments in heaven exchanged for a lifetime in hell, tell me, to where should I send the flowers?"

The withering look Caroline gives him is truly one for the stage, she conveys all her contempt and opinion about his level of intelligence in one expression.

"They weren't sleeping together; he was just the friend that looked after her after you kicked her out of the house in the pouring rain with nothing but the nightgown she was wearing!"

"So you don't know where she's relocated to?" he asks and she slams the suitcase shut,

"No, I do know, I'm just not telling you in case that place mysteriously burns down too."

She drops the suitcase to the floor, grabs the handle and begins moving towards him, obviously assuming that he would step aside for her, instead he continues to block her path,

"I could always make you tell me." He points out, letting his tone drop and the danger seep through his voice but she doesn't even flinch,

"And I could always scream for your brother and then watch as he daggers you for a hundred years," She counters, "Excuse you."

She clatters down the stairs with more noise than strictly necessary and he surrenders for the moment, suddenly exhausted as he walks through the apartment.

Miss Forbes had not come close to packing up all of Katerina's possessions, her shoe collection alone would take a solid seven hours to move, a fact he had discovered firsthand. Her ball gowns remained as did some of her racier nightgowns and lingerie.

Still, there was something missing from the apartment, a sense of warmth, the sound of her heartbeat and just the comfort of her presence.

Elijah frowned and opened the doors to the rooftop terrace, letting the night air fill the room, breeze through his hair and his clothes and fill his lungs so that he could breathe.

* * *

Klaus had worked his magic and by two in the morning, Katherine found herself standing the living room of a two storey house on Morgan Street Algiers Point. She could see the river from the second floor and the house backed onto acres of grassy lawn. She closed her eyes and exhaled.

She made the mistake of relaxing so she nearly jumped out of her skin when the front door opened,

"I'm here!"

Caroline Forbes brought energy and enthusiasm into the house, "Oh my god, this place is so pretty!" she gushed as she placed Katherine suitcase in the unfurnished living room and began exploring, "Okay, so we just need some furniture and some new drapes, ooh…do you have any themes or colours in mind yet?"

Considering that she hadn't even got the stench of smoke from her hair yet, she did not have any colour schemes in mind, no.

Still, she perches on her suitcase and manages a weary smile as Caroline bustles around,

"What's wrong?" she asks before the blonde launches into a spiel about the pros and cons of leather furniture.

"What?" Caroline feigns ignorance but Katherine fixes her with a pointed look,

"Okay, fine," she sighs, "So…I got an email from Bonnie today, telling me that she's sorry, that she misses me and wants me to visit Sal-"

"_Trap,_" Katherine determines before she's even finished speaking, "Definitely a trap."

Caroline sighs, "That's what I thought, I mean…I was hoping that I was wrong and that…"

"You weren't," Katherine interrupts rudely, "She meant to trap you or to draw you out of New Orleans."

Caroline wrings her hands and faces her, her heartache and fear written across her face,

"Do you think that Klaus is in danger?"

Katherine really hadn't given Klaus' current level of safety a single thought. She was having a hard enough time trying to survive herself without worrying about her former enemy turned future brother-in-law.

"I don't know," she admits, "But if someone wants you and me out of town, I'm going to guess yes."

Caroline groans and runs her hands through her hair, "I _hate_ this, I hate that my best friend called me asking for help and that my first thought was _'Trap'_, I hate that they're forcing me to choose Klaus and make a stand. I hate what happened to you!"

Giacomo.

Katherine's eyes keep flickering to the door, expecting him to sweep in and take her hands,

"_My sweet lady, forgive me for frightening you. Of course I survived the fire, but are you unharmed?"_

She'd never hear his voice again.

She'd never catch him watching her, his eyes filled with love and adoration.

In that moment, she actually wishes that she had slept with him, last night, or this afternoon, he'd loved her so selflessly, she should have let him have her at least once.

She crosses her arms and crosses her ankles, "I'll be fine Caroline, I always am."

Caroline opened her mouth but Katherine shook her head, "I know, I know that I'm still in danger and I know the risks every time I make a move but I have to do it anyway because the only other option is to lay down and die"

She stood up and jerked her head to the front door, walking Caroline out to the porch where the light shone dimly, they both adjusted their clothes against the cold out of sheer habit and looked down the road.

"You should stay away for a little while," she warned the girl quietly, "At least until Klaus says that it's safe for you to come back."

Caroline's brow creased into a little frown and Katherine took a moment to marvel in her. This creature of her own making, this woman who'd taken to vampirism with a skill rarely seen and flourish in the undead life. This woman who held the heart of the most powerful creature in the world and never even once considered the control that gave her over everyone and everything.

This woman who could forgive her enemies with more grace than Katherine would ever be capable of showing.

"Please," Katherine mumbled, hating herself for sounding weak, "I've lost enough already, I don't want to lost what few female friends I have left."

Caroline's eyes go wide and nearly sparkle, it's clear that she wants to make this a bff moment but Katherine's pride won't stand for it, so she spins on her heel and goes back inside, shutting the door firmly.

She's exhausted, but she supposes that if today taught her anything it was that she was under threat, so now at least she could act like a Princess of the Quarter, which wasn't unlike a Queen on the Chess Board. She'd get rid of all her enemies with any means necessary.

* * *

A/N- Long chapter but hopefully that made up for the hiatus.


	24. Klaus III Elijah IV Katherine VI Rebekah

A/N- Yep, finally updated and we're getting close to the action now!

* * *

_Bang._

Klaus shot up into a sitting position, looking around the room wildly, trying to locate the source of the noise.

Raina had thrown herself into the room, pushing the door open so quickly and forcibly that it had smacked against the wall.

"Erik's _gone!_" she shrieked, "I put him to bed last night as I do every time but when I woke up five minutes ago…"

Klaus' shoulders sunk in relief and silently, with the hint of a smile on his lips, he pulled back the duvet to reveal his son's brunette head of hair pillowed on his arm, his chubby little fist clutching the silk sheets. Raina pressed her hand to her heart,

"Oh my God," she gasped, "Don't _ever_ frighten me like that again. I had three heart attacks, next time you take him, wake me up!"

Klaus arched an eyebrow, this woman was ordering him about with a tone that only Caroline Forbes had ever got away with, but he allows it because she loves his son,

"I shall," he promised, "I thought it would be cruel to wake you, sleep is such a blissful escape."

Raina frowned and padded into the room, still in her pink boxers and old blue singlet, which had fallen down to expose her left breast when she had run but she covers herself now with little concern. She knows where his heart lies.

"Are you okay?" she asks, perching herself on the edge of the bed, "I've noticed things have been changing around here."

He shakes his head ruefully, "The more things change the more they stay the same."

He doesn't want to explain to her that the situation wasn't changing so much as it was reverting back to the norm.

He could no longer trust his siblings.

Rebekah had dropped her knickers for another man who was just using her either for her name or her power.

Elijah's actions were undermining everything they had built together, the peace they had striven so hard to bring to the Quarter, the stability and power structure.

All that work had been destroyed in one day.

By throwing Katherine out of the house and trying to banish her from New Orleans, he had given their enemies cause to think that all was not well in the Mikaelson household, that there was contention in the family and any power player worth the name would be trying to capitalize on that.

And that wasn't even considering what _Katherine_ would do once she found her feet, how she would retaliate against the man that had abused and humiliated her.

Who had possibly murdered her friend.

He had yet to confront him about that.

Then there was Caroline. Whom he'd been so close to winning over, so close to convincing to move in with him, to join him in his world instead of dancing across it briefly.

It had been a wondrous dream and then everything had gone back to normal. His siblings apparently once again punishing him for his actions.

But he doesn't have a single idea what he did wrong this time.

He even thought he'd done everything right.

He'd welcomed Katerina Petrova into New Orleans and turned a blind eye when she decorated Le Coeur Jardin without even consulting him, he'd let it be known that she was to be considered royalty and part of the family.

He'd raised his son lovingly and ruled over the Quarter fairly, preferring Elijah's diplomacy to his usual brutality because he thought that it would be more beneficial for him to be a benign dictator.

He'd rescued Elizabeth Forbes from the backwoods of Virginia and found her a home and job in Baton Rouge when she hadn't wanted any part of the supernatural town of New Orleans.

He'd offered the Salvatores' and Gilberts' refuge in his town, hell he'd offered them rooms in his own house.

And yet here he was, alone except for his son Erik who couldn't abandon him because he was still learning to walk and Raina who wouldn't abandon him because she loved his son.

He slid from the bed with a sigh and wondered which part of his crumbling kingdom he should see to first.

"I promise you" he kissed his son's forehead, "I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe and then I'll work on becoming a man worthy of being your father"

* * *

Elijah looks down with a grimace of distaste as the wet ash splashes onto his leather shoe.

How had they not begun the clean-up process yet?

He makes his way through the crowd of spectators, the ones who are merely pausing on their way to their end destination.

Yesterday, they would have stayed to watch but yesterday the building was burning down.

Today, it was nothing but hollowed ruin, blackened wood, shattered glass and scraps of paper fluttering through the air.

A stark contrast against the beautifully sunny day.

According to the news, the fire had begun downstairs, theoretically, a pipeline must have exploded, it was the only way to explain the strength and heat of the fire, the speed with which it destroyed everything. Officially, there was no fatalities and one survivor, name unknown.

_Theoretically_, if it hadn't been a bomb that had started the fire then in all likelihood it had to have been a curse of dark magic, for even the brick walls of the backyard had been destroyed in the flames.

_Unofficially_, Giacomo Farnese, a man who'd survived Renaissance Italy, countless wars, and the twentieth century, had died.

_Unofficially_, he was likely not the target.

Although nobody was quite sure how Katerina had survived, or where she was now.

Well, almost nobody.

Elijah suspected that Niklaus and Ms Forbes were quite aware of her location and were simply choosing not to divulge it.

And that was…

He stops in his tracks, his right hand picking at the skin around his thumb nail, ignoring the police and investigators around him as they went about their business, securing the area and seeing to the building, trying to prevent it collapsing or causing injury to bystanders.

They are red and yellow shapes with sharp edges moving in amongst the grey and black smudges.

He frowns as he tries to finish his thought, draw it to its natural conclusion.

Katerina had escaped the flames, and that was…

Katerina had escaped certain death and that was…

What _was_ that word?

He can picture it in the back of his mind.

The word was an adjective and a noun, the synonym of nice, the antonym of bad.

Katerina Petrova.

And that was…

He growls in frustration, choking on the moisture in his throat as he finds himself unable to breathe.

Why can't he ever _breathe_?!

"Elijah?"

He spins on his heel, glaring as he searches the crowd for the interloper on his reverie and when he sees curls for a moment he thinks that Katherine had sought him out.

But it is not her, it is…

"Ms Laurent," he greets with a polite nod, "Good morning."

"Oh please," she smiles, "Call me Sabine."

She looks over his shoulder with a sardonic smile, "Wow, somebodies been playing with fire."

_There's a hint of malice buried in her eyes and…_

"Yes," Elijah finds himself agreeing, "Most unfortunate, Farnese had such a wonderful array of books."

She gives a sympathetic sigh, "And Katherine Pierce?" she asks, "Did she survive?"

He frowns slightly, _what a strange way to phrase the question, why…_

"I have not seen her but I have been assured by Caroline Forbes that she is alive and well."

A flash of fury across Sabine's face before she gives him a simpering smile,

"I was just about to go get lunch," she looks to a restaurant across the street, "Come join me."

Elijah's gaze flickers to the building, he knew the restaurant, he had dined there with Katerina only six weeks ago.

So much had changed since then.

"I'm afraid I must decline," he apologizes, "I have duties to attend to."

"Well how about dinner?" she offers eagerly, hurrying after him as he ducks under the police tape and begins moving up the street,

"Tonight? I know a new place that opened up last night, just off Canal St…"

She trails off but he pauses in thought.

A new place.

A place where he hadn't dined with Katerina.

Here he had been assuming that he would have had to go out of the Quarter, perhaps even the city to find such a place.

"Eight?" he finds himself suggesting and she beams, "I'll see you there."

He manages a tight smile and continues walking, noting with pleasant surprise that he can draw deep breaths of air into his lungs.

It feels…

_What_ was that word?

* * *

How much pollution could there possibly be in the Mississippi?

Katherine considered this as she stood at banks of Algiers Point, looking into the fast flowing river.

She wanted to dive into it, to sink beneath its depths and lie on its floor.

But she's pretty sure the viruses in the water would kill her, even if the current and whatever debris there was didn't.

Or with her luck, it'd be a stray alligator.

Behind her someone clears her throat and she turns to see Nadia, standing there with an impatient expression on her face,

"What's the plan?" she demands.

For a moment, Katherine wants to lie, to tell her that she hasn't thought up a plan yet, that she's still exhausted from the day before- which she is, that she needs rest- which she does, that she needs to heal from her injuries, mourn her friend, whatever it takes for Nadia to let her go back upstairs and to bury herself underneath her pillows and blankets.

But she's Katherine Pierce and she doesn't get sick days.

Not when her life was in danger.

She crosses her arms and begins striding across the wide expanse of grass,

"We are going to get in your car and you are going to take me out to the Bayou where you're hiding your witch." She explains and her daughter's shoulders drop in disappointment,

"How did you know?" she asks, put out that her secret had been discovered and Katherine smirked,

"That you had allied yourself with a witch?" she shakes her head,

"Sweetie, you're a _Petrova_, you don't walk into a situation unless you have an exit strategy planned and a powerful ally onside."

"And that she was in the Bayou?" Nadia asked as she climbed into the driver's seat, checking that Katherine had clipped in her seat belt before starting the engine, and she shrugged,

"It's the biggest plot of wild, untamed land where you could get lost for days and not even be more than half a mile from the nearest road. Where better to hide a person?"

However, for all her showing off, Katherine and Nadia weren't even twenty minutes into their trek through the Bayou before she began to feel out of breath.

Which was strange.

Because she shouldn't be struggling so hard to recover.

After she dived into the Fountain of Youth, she had been granted heightened senses and healing abilities.

Two strengths that seemed to have left her.

And she's pretty sure that she has an idea why.

Nadia offers her an arm, "I can help," she murmurs but Katherine waves her off,

She doesn't want to appear weak in front of this witch. In front of anyone.

To be weak in front of someone was to ask them to take care of you.

To give them that trust…

Doing that had led to Giacomo's death.

She would never be responsible for the death of a friend again.

They have to be careful, the werewolves still called the Bayou home, but they stick to the touristy areas, where the weekend warriors hiked for an hour or two, sat down and ate a homemade meal before taking lots of photos nobody would ever care about and heading home.

They were just past a particularly rancid smelling swamp when Katherine senses a presence.

Heat shoots across her shoulder blades and she winces, reaching behind her to rub them,

"Interesting," a voice calls, "Those with our magic aren't supposed to feel us so strongly."

Katherine rolls her eyes, "Gee, I'm _honoured_ to be in pain right now,"

She turns around and takes in the woman standing in front of her, "_What the hell_?!" she screeches.

Nadia steps forward, between the two women in concern, "Mother, this is Scarlet Rose."

Katherine glares at her, "Bitch, you were my personal shopper in Paris!"

Scarlet Rose gives a disdainful snort, "And you are a peasant turned lady, turned vampire turned human…or at least you're pretending to be human. Life is ever changing and so are we."

"I _tipped_ you, you lying spying c-"

"Mother!" Nadia interrupts, "This woman got me in touch with the travellers in America and helped me to locate you. She is our ally!"

Katherine glares and digs her heel into the soft dirt but nods as graciously as she can under the circumstances, "Thanks."

The word is spit like venom but Scarlet Rose still takes it as well intended.

"In truth, we only helped your daughter because we had been watching you for a while, ever since you came alive again, we were hoping that your lineage would reassert itself. We know that you died before your father," she adds when Katherine opens her mouth to interrupt,

"But when you resurrected, when your heart was placed back in your body and the witch performed the spell, the possibility was there and after the Fountain of Youth, your magic started returning, growing inside of you, am I wrong?"

Katherine bit her cheek but didn't make any denials,

"My father was an Earth Guardian," she admits, "I'm not sure if…he never taught my sister or I any magic or spells."

"Not that its stopped me from trying," she continues, confessing before she could be accused,

"I've been teaching myself for the last year or so, in complete secret, little spells at first and then…when I was certain I wouldn't screw it up, I put a protection spell around Elijah…just a small one," she explains hastily when the witch's eyes go wide with worry, "Nothing too ambitious."

"Perhaps you should have put a protection spell on yourself," Nadia suggests in a snarky tone and Scarlet Rose shakes her head,

"Be grateful she didn't, otherwise they would have had to use a deadlier curse."

_What?!_

"Excuse me?" Katherine and Nadia demand in unison and the witch sighs,

"I would have thought you two would have figured it out by now. Your enemies have been moving against you since before Mystic Falls, my sister, they attacked you where you were most vulnerable, your heart. I tried to stop it, I tried summoning the rain every time they began but in Mystic Falls, the white oak stake was stronger than your spell and left him open to attack. They weren't able to kill you but with a little rumour and a little poison, a hex or two…"

"They hexed my fiancé," Katherine realizes, "I assumed my spell was still in place but I was wrong and because of that, some _wart-nosed, hemp wearing witches_ hexed Elijah and…Farnese."

His name escapes her lips like a lover's sigh, "The fire yesterday was them trying to kill me."

"I don't think it's personal," Scarlet Rose says, "You're simply a means to the destruction of Klaus Mikaelson."

With a screech of frustration and fury, Katherine whirls away from her and storms over to a tree, smacking the bark with her open hand three times before she can spin back around to face them,

"_Nothing personal_! They came after _me_, they came after the _love_ of my _life_ and the only reason they haven't gone after my daughter is because they don't even know she _exists_! But nothing personal? Well, I am going to rip them to _shreds_, _burn_ their houses, their _covens_ and throw them atop the _flames_, I am going to _eradicate_ their names from this city, I am going to destroy them and dance on their ashes, oh but don't worry, it's nothing personal!"

She sneers and clenches her hands into fists, "First things first, you're going to figure out what hex has been placed on my fiancé and then remove it, then you're going to help me locate these witches and, if need be, help me with the Molotov cocktails."

Scarlet Rose gives a half shrug, "Very well, but it will be easier said than done, I'll need the day to gather the ingredients."

Katherine sighs and runs a hand through her hair, "Fine, see you tonight."

With the conversation over, she begins walking away, having not yet developed the habit of waiting for her daughter. Nadia watches her leave and looks to Scarlet Rose,

"Is she safe?" she asks and the witch sighs,

"Not since her fifteenth year when she looked into the watery abyss on the night of darkness and wished for love." She kicks at the dirt,

"It was really stupid of your grandfather not to teach her magic, especially when she already had it within her."

Nadia swallows back her fear, "Is there any way I can protect her?"

The witch closes her eyes, trying to force another vision before opening them in disappointment,

"I don't see a way, but when the time comes you can forgive her, for she won't ever escape the curse."

Nadia blinks in confusion, chills running down her spine, "What curse?"

Scarlet Rose gives her a sympathetic smile, "The curse of all-consuming love."

* * *

.

Rebekah was feeling very uncomfortable.

Ironically, because she was feeling so comfortable.

She was lying on Ollie's bed while he massaged her feet, asking her questions about her day and offering to cook her dinner, whatever she wanted.

He was being very sweet.

Absolutely _perfect_.

And her instincts were warning her that something was wrong.

As much as she wanted to believe that she had hit the jackpot, that she had fallen in love with a guy who absolutely adored her, she simply didn't trust that life had turned out so well.

Especially when just this morning she'd had the joy of breakfasting with her brother where instead of the slices of fruit and tea he'd eaten paranoia and drunk fantasies of bloody vengeance.

Rebekah was more than used to Niklaus' paranoia, she'd been dealing with it ever since he'd recovered from the Hunter's curse, but instead of brushing it off, her brain had drawn a connection between one brother's fantastical claims of an invisible enemy and another's increasingly bizarre behaviour and she'd begun to wonder.

What if they were _right_?

If someone were to go after the Originals, they wouldn't leave one standing, able to avenge the others, they would take them all out at once.

Which meant that she herself was under attack.

But in lieu of insanity or paranoia…she had a lover who'd popped up out of nowhere, a werewolf who surprisingly didn't have prejudices against vampires and had fallen in love with her immediately, declaring it after only a week or so.

What was it her brother had once said?

_"You don't capture the Princess; you woo her, so that she walks out of the tower on her own"_

Here she was, outside of the tower, in the hands of the man she'd thought to be her white knight but instead had turned out to be another obstacle in her path for her happy ending.

Unable to bear the charade a second longer, she pulls her feet away and stands up,

"I'm sorry," she apologizes as he starts in surprise and asks her what's wrong,

"I…I fought with Nik this morning and…I have to go make it right or…he won't let me see Erik again."

Ollie shrugs, still kneeling on the bed, "Okay, I didn't think you liked that kid much anyway."

She gives him a pout, "We're Mikaelson's, none of us actually _like_ each other but we love our family beyond reason or belief…it's our curse."

He holds out his hand, "Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to come with you for emotional support?"

What kind of backwoods Bayou werewolf man used the words _emotional support_ in a sentence?

One who was trying to play her.

She gives him her best faux-innocent smile and leans in for a kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth teasingly,

"Best not, when Nik's in a mood he tends to get violent, but don't go far, I'll be home tonight."

He gives a lopsided grin, "Home, I like the sound of that."

Her heart is breaking and the predator within her is screaming for blood, for vengeance against this creature who'd played her for a fool, but instead she keeps her smile on her face and focuses on walking out of Francesca's house as quickly as possible without letting anyone see her worry.

Because she sincerely doubted that puppy was working alone.

* * *

Caroline was being followed.

She'd sensed it the second she'd left her class.

One of the benefits of having a cop for a mom, the police force had been her family and she'd received extensive training on what to do in the event that someone was tailing her.

So, instead of heading to her next class, she began meandering to her favourite on-campus café, taking the least direct path, adding a good five minutes to her journey and, yep, she could still sense the person behind her.

They don't follow her into the café but she buys her coffee anyway, whilst trying to keep an eye out for anyone looking suspicious. She doesn't see anyone who looks familiar or anyone trying to look inconspicuous or keep an eye on her.

She walks out to the green, while tossing up whether to text Camille or Klaus to meet her.

She nixes both ideas.

She doesn't want to put the very human and very vulnerable Camille in danger and Klaus would be of the kill-first and maybe consider a question later mind.

She can't even consider Katherine, who was probably still recovering from yesterday's events.

Sitting down on the lawn, she takes out her phone under the pretence of taking a selfie and uses the camera to study the people behind her, keeping her smile fixed as she spotted one sleeping stoner, two girls making out, one girl deep in a Harry Potter book and one guy…

Vincent.

He clearly realises he's been spotted because he lopes over and she releases an inaudible groan, her worry being replaced by annoyance.

She knew Vincent had a thing for her, but she'd told him time and time again that she had a boyfriend and there was no way that he didn't know who Klaus was by now. Not when she'd seen him at the Masquerade party.

"Hey Caroline." he sits down beside her without invitation and she struggles to keep her voice light and airy,

"Hi Vincent, how are you?"

When he sits too close to her and stares at her too eagerly, she wonders how to get rid of him as quickly as possible without being rude. Thankfully, he gives her an opportunity when he mentions that she usually has class now- and how creepy was it that he knew her _schedule_? And she takes the chance to pretend to hurry off, when instead she goes around the corner and waits.

He doesn't leave but stays sitting on the grass and takes out his phone, making a call and she tucks her hair behind her ear, listening to him from across the lawn.

"Hey, it's me…no, I wasn't able to…because she has a boyfriend and I haven't had the chance to…yeah, I'll keep following her…yes, I'll make sure to…okay, I get it! Bye."

He is so caught up in the conversation that he doesn't see her skirt around and approach him from behind until she sits right back down, startling him.

"Hey," he gives a nervous laugh, "I thought you had class?"

"Oh I do," she smiles, "But I thought it'd be more interesting to find out who you're working for and why you're following me."

His blanches and begins stuttering as she shifts forward and hisses, her fangs dropping from her gums and her eyes turning red,

"Lie and I eat you."

Even in his fear he manages to chuckle and look around,

"Not here you won't," he argues, "Too many witnesses."

She smirks, "And what will they see? A guy and a girl making out? People don't look for danger and I'm so far from the image of the monster in their mind that they won't even blink as I drain the life from your body."

He is shaking with fear and the vampire in her hope that he runs, she wants to chase him, she wants to hear him scream as she tears into his neck and feasts on his hot blood.

Instead, he runs a trembling hand through his hair, "Okay…but…not, not here, because I'm not entirely sure that I'm the only one watching you."

She glares but allows him this, "My place," she decides, "But you should know, I have Klaus on standby right now, he doesn't hear me give him the code word in ten minutes, he'll be sending every last vampire in New Orleans to this campus to find me. You'll never get me out in time."

She's lying but she figures that he won't risk calling her bluff.

"Okay," he holds up his hands, "Lead the way."

As confident as she sounds, Caroline isn't one hundred percent sure she knows what she's doing. Threatening someone into spilling their secrets is easy in theory, especially when you're a vampire, but in practise…it's awkward.

Especially when it's a good long walk to her room.

She picks up her pace, forcing Vincent to jog to catch up and is so eager to reach her room that she doesn't even remember just how deserted the thru-way is in the middle of the day.

She only just registers his whispering as she spins around, gets caught in the sensation of falling and the world goes black.

* * *

A/N- There we go!


	25. Caroline XI Elijah V Katherine VI Klaus

A/N- Here we are. Thank-you everyone who has taken the time to read this story.

* * *

Caroline has- unfortunately- been kidnapped enough times that she's barely even regained consciousness before her instincts kick in and she's leaping to her feet, lunging furiously towards the first beating heart she can hear pumping in a human chest.

She has the body surrounding this vital organ dangling in the air and is squeezing the life out of them before she can gain enough of a grip on herself that she realizes that she isn't killing Vincent the witch.

But Jessie, her old friends-with-benefits guy.

She's so surprised and confused to see him several states away from where she broke up with him that she automatically releases him and he drops to the floor, gasping as he clutches his bruised throat. She looks behind him and sees the door to her dorm room, somehow she'd ended up back here and, in spite of everything, feels a measure of safety.

This is _her_ turf.

Another throat clears itself pointedly and Caroline turns around to see a slightly familiar woman brandishing a gun,

"This the guy you're looking for?" she asks drily in British accented tones, pointing down to where Vincent knelt, bound and gagged with a droplet of blood slowly making its way from his temple down to his chin.

Caroline gives herself a moment to withdraw her fangs and let her eyes clear of blood before she nods,

"Yeah and um…thanks for rescuing me and all, but who the hell are you two? And I mean _really_."

"We were following you," she explains, "And who we are is a long conversation that we can circle back to later, for now…" she holds the gun in front of Vincent's eyes, "See this? I know how to use it and I've killed way too many people with one to have any second thoughts about splattering your brains across the room. Caroline here," she waves to her with her free hand, "Can easily compel anyone who comes to the door asking what they heard. Talk or die."

His eyes go wide with fear before resignation sinks on his shoulders and he nods, waiting patiently as the woman tugs the gag out of his mouth, he breathes deep and swallows a few times before speaking, "I don't feel too good," he murmurs and the woman nods,

"Good, I gave you a concussion, figured you can't do magic if you can barely think straight."

Caroline is impressed by this woman's logic but doesn't say anything because she doesn't want to distract anyone or give Vincent the chance to come up with a lie,

"Why have you been following Caroline?" the woman asks, as Jesse scrambles to his feet and puts some distance between him and her.

"Because I was ordered to," he confesses and Caroline has a moment of panic that Klaus had been having her tailed before he continues,

"Sabine Laurent is working with the Guerrera cartel and had my wife killed, she's blocking her spirit from resurrection and I could only get her back if I did what she said."

Sabine Laurent?

Caroline has a vague image of the woman in her mind but having met so many people since coming to New Orleans, can't immediately place her.

"What did she say?" Jesse asks, massaging his throat and Caroline starts in shock when she hears him speaking with a British accent. She turns on him but he mouths the word 'Later' to her and she focuses her attention back on Vincent.

"At first, she wanted me to seduce Caroline," he grimaces apologetically at her, "She uh…she had me put a love potion in your drink at the masquerade party but you just went home with Klaus. I also had to put sedatives in the champagne at the Bourbon St Manor so that you or Katherine could be spelled while everyone was asleep but someone- another witch- has been blocking us for months."

He swallows nervously and continues, "She…she said me that if you didn't sleep with me willingly that I should uh…well…" he trails off with a nervous cough and Caroline can hear her heart pounding in her chest and she struggles to control herself.

"_Seriously?!_" she snaps, "You were trying to destroy my relationship with Klaus and thought _that_ would work?"

"And by the way," she adds, not giving him the chance to answer, "Didn't you guys learn anything from the last time you crossed the Mikaelson's? Wasn't like, almost every damn witch that wasn't killed, exiled from this city?"

"And then some," Vincent agrees, "Which is why Sabine started working with Francesca, she reckons that she can take down the Mikaelson's and set herself up as head of the witch covens across the entire city, and she make herself as powerful as any witch alive right now."

Caroline lets her disgust show in her eyes, "So _that's_ why you attacked me?" she demanded, "If these two hadn't interrupted, would you have…"

"No," he interrupts, "I would have told Sabine that I had but I wouldn't have, all I really had to do was keep you locked up somewhere until tomorrow morning."

"Why?" Jesse demands, "What's happening tonight?"

Vincent shrugs, "I don't know but I'm betting that whatever the master plan is, it's scheduled to go down tonight."

Caroline pulls out her phone, "Okay, I need to call Klaus now!"

Jesse reaches out and takes her hand, stilling it on her phone, "First, we need to take you to our leader…and yes, I realize how corny that sounds, but if you're going to tell Klaus what's going on, he's going to need the whole story."

Caroline's instincts tell her to call her boyfriend immediately, but she remembers that he subscribes to the 'Kill first, questions later if convenient' and if he came now, he'd probably be elbow deep in the intestines of seventy-five percent of the room's occupants before Caroline could figure out what was really going on.

"Fine," she tells him, checking her watch, "You have two hours to tell me everything and then I'm calling him."

* * *

The sun was just beginning to set when Elijah found himself standing in front of the hallway mirror in the Bourbon St Manor. His fingers deftly turning the silk tie between his fingers into a perfect Windsor knot before sliding it into place around the collar of his shirt.

It felt strangely like a noose.

Swallowing, he risks a glance upwards and studies his reflection.

If he doesn't look too closely, he has the same face that he has worn for nine hundred years.

But when he looks closer, he cannot recognize himself.

Who is this pale being, with heavily lined eyes, stubble across his jaw, and grey strands in his hair that weren't there nine hundred years ago.

And why can't he breathe?

With a sigh, he pulls his suit jacket into place and wishes that it wasn't one of last season's outfits.

However, all his new suits are at Le Coeur Jardin and he hasn't been able to bring himself to cross the threshold of that apartment since…

The rooms still carry the scent of damask roses.

He can hear Sabine waiting three feet from her front door when he arrives at her apartment, her breathing patterns betray her excitement and he feels foolish and embarrassed on her behalf.

He knocks on the door and it swings open so quickly that he wonders if she used her hand or her magic.

She has a wide smile on her face and a white dress that wouldn't have been out of place two hundred years ago when his family last called New Orleans home.

He matches her smile and kisses her cheek in greeting.

She is wearing a perfume that is no doubt expensive but smells only of alcohol to him.

They maintain pleasant chatter on their way to the restaurant, her arm wrapped tightly in his as she navigates the path in what must be new high heels.

He'd made a reservation but despite his preference for dining in the back gardens, or the corners away from the busier areas, they find themselves seated in the very center of the restaurant, with all eyes upon them as they're handed a wine list twice the size of the menus.

And Sabine is perfectly fine.

She is overly polite to the staff; she peruses the wine list instead of barely glancing at it before ordering the most expensive glass available. She asks questions about the food and discusses options with him instead of choosing her meal and then tapping her finger impatiently while he chooses his. She doesn't roll her eyes when their appetizers take longer than five minutes to arrive. She doesn't check the restaurant for wifi, or rub his leg with her foot while pretending to be admiring the building's interior. She doesn't people watch and make snarky comments about those around them.

She is not Katherine.

He finds himself becoming irritable at that knowledge. This well-behaved, lovely woman is not spoilt, she isn't dressed to attract attention, her every move isn't calibrated for seduction and she doesn't look at him as if she already has the evening planned out and he is expected to simply go along with it.

She is not his fiancée- _ex-fiancée_, - and that should be a good thing.

So why can't he breathe?

When she is in the bathroom, he pretends for a moment that he is Kol and moves to the bar and orders three shots of whatever the bartender had in his hand.

It turned out to be jager.

Cheap jager.

It somewhat takes the edge off, at least enough for him to stop seeing imaginary brunette curls in his peripheral vision.

By eleven, they are wandering down Conti St, as he had done with Katerina for her very first morning in New Orleans and he wonders if he heads to Woldenberg Park if he will find her standing by the Mississippi, glaring into its watery depths as if it personally is to blame for not being the Tundzha river in Bulgaria.

It had always been a form of retreat for her, a place for her to find comfort and lose herself in memories until she could bare facing the world again.

He finds himself unable to take another step in that direction and instead, tries to subtly direct Sabine back to Bourbon St, to a bar where he can drink until the scent of damask roses, the click of high heels and the scrape of tight denim no longer haunts him.

They are walking through one of the many graffiti-covered, litter-strewn alleyways when she suddenly turns and kisses him.

He is surprised and automatically kisses her back, noting that there is a strange familiarity in the way her teeth graze his lips and her hand rests on his upper left arm.

She presses closer but he finds himself stepping away, breaking the kiss as gently as he can.

"Forgive me," he smiles, finding himself breathless, "I…I can't…"

He isn't entirely sure what he can't do, can't kiss her, can't be romantically involved, can't _even_?

He simply knows that this doesn't feel right and that there isn't enough air in the alleyway for him to breathe.

Sabine is looking at him in confusion before her eyes alight on the line in his shirt and she steps forward with such determination that he nearly backs up into the wall.

She presses her hand on his chest and feels the lump against her palm, determining what it is all-too-easily.

He had broken skin when he'd ripped his engagement ring off his finger, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to throw it away.

His hand had been clenched over the trash can but he couldn't force it open.

Something instinctual had told him to keep the ring close, and it had brought him a feeling of protection.

"What is it about her?" Sabine demands, "What virtue does she have that makes you love her even now?"

Her language has changed, become formalized in a way that is close to his but that he hasn't heard in some time.

In the moment, he brushes it off in favor of managing a woeful smile,

"Katerina is selfish," he begins, "Impulsive, spoilt, impatient, challenging…" he trails off,

"She does have virtues also, but it is for her vices that I love her and even now…" he breaths out and inhales deeply, feeling his chest ease as the air inflates his lungs,

"She still holds my heart in her greedy, French manicured and paraffin waxed hands."

He takes her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing the knuckles, noting a ring that seems familiar to him but brushing it from his mind,

"Forgive me," he murmurs, truly meaning the apology, "I wish matters were different from what they are."

Her eyes are bright and hard as diamonds, "_I don't._"

He knows that it is far from gentlemanly to leave her in that alleyway, but the witches of New Orleans were safe within the French Quarter, so he begins walking away, his steps slow but firm and he doesn't falter until he catching the hint of a whisper on the air.

On the wind.

The wind that wasn't caused by nature but by magic.

His vision swims in front of him and he spins around quickly, hissing and lunging towards the witch, intending to stop the words falling from her lips except that his legs give out beneath him and he drops to his knees in that filthy alleyway.

Elijah claws at his throat, his nails raking at the skin and the chain holding his engagement ring breaks and it slips down his chest to the waistline of his pants.

Blood stains his shirt, pieces of torn flesh stick under his nails and flop against the starched collar.

He can't breathe.

He is _suffocating_!

Spots are dancing before his eyes, he is losing consciousness but before he does, a revelation flashes through him and he can gasp the true name of the witch cursing him.

"_Celeste_."

* * *

_From: Katherine Piece 'Sorry, Father K, send the cleaning bill to Elijah'_

When Father Kieran had received that text from Katherine Pierce, he had put down his dinner and hurried to St Anne's Church to find that he was already too late.

"Please tell me that this isn't human blood." he begs with a despondent sigh as he looks down at the magical mark that was staining the floor of his church.

The pews had been pushed out of the way and the altar cloth removed and he tries to calculate how long it would take him to clean all this up.

Because if there is one thing he knows about supernatural creatures, it's that they don't clean up after themselves, no matter what kind of mess they make- be it emotional, magical or physical.

Katherine Pierce, looking as immaculately put-together and seductive as ever, despite the bruising just visible under her make-up throws him the wicked grin he knows all-too-well,

"Shouldn't you love _all_ of God's creatures equally?" she asks with feigned curiosity and he sits down in one of the available pews,

"Yes, but dead animals are a lot easier to cover up then dead humans." He explains, "And I'm afraid to ask but I'm going to do it anyway, what the hell are you doing?"

"Magic," she explains with a smirk, "More to the point, very old magic."

He studies the ingredients, seeing what he could unfortunately recognize as bones that had been ground into dust, "Dark magic?"

She shakes her head, "No, but it's hard to explain, it's often misunderstood as evil because it can't be applied to the balance of nature understood by most schools of witchcraft today."

That doesn't sound promising and Kieran has the idea in his head that he's slowly being pulled into whatever supernatural calamity was fast approaching New Orleans like a hurricane.

"Promise me that this isn't a spell to harm people." He demands and she offers him a tender smile, reaching down to stroke his cheek,

"I swear on the mass grave I will put my enemies in."

_Wonderful_.

So he could pretty much chalk that answer up to a yes.

Another woman comes in from a side door, carrying a burning torch and he shoots Katherine a warning look but she ignores him.

Her eyes are burning bright and the excitement is etched into her face, he knows that if he tried to stop her now she could quite easily kill him and feel little remorse later.

Katherine Pierce was the very image of beauty and the very soul of deadliness.

Worse, Kieran suspected that she had been forced onto a path of vengeance and once the first step was taken, it was awfully hard not to go all the way.

And he wouldn't be able to draw her back from damnation. Not with the very little time that he had and not when her enemies were the same as the ones who had killed his beloved nephew.

But he wasn't leaving.

If nothing else, he could be a witness to this act.

The other woman- the witch, he presumes- lowers to the markings on the floor and a quick blue flame darts across, feeding greedily on the blood before it darkens and turns black and languid, reaching up as though it was the greatest of efforts before drooping back down towards the floor.

The witch holds her hand out and Katherine sighs before working the engagement ring off her finger and letting it slip into the proffered palm.

It is sacrificed to the pitch black flames and quickly lost to sight as the woman chants, a wind from nowhere gushing through the church, banging on the doors and rattling the candlesticks. The light from the windows is lost and Kieran tries to keep ahold of his senses as terror tremors through his legs and turns his bones liquid.

Katherine is gazing at the fire with rapt adoration and reaches for it as if for a lover, he wants to pull her backwards, to shout a warning but the words are lost in his dry throat. Her middle finger touches the blackness and she gives a little gasp of happiness before the tiniest of frowns furrows her brows and she withdraws her hand, turning it over to study the marked skin.

"It's not working," she murmurs, sounding so much like a disappointed child who was about to cry, but Kieran has seen her grieve and knows that it doesn't immobilize her for long.

"_Why isn't it working?_" she shrieks, fury dancing in her voice and the witch frowns at the black flames,

"Something is wrong…" she murmurs and Katherine huffs,

"Gee, you think?"

She storms across the area, through the flames which sluggishly part to make way for her, "Why isn't it working?"

The witch is looking around the church evidently confused, "Where is it?"

Katherine snarls in frustration, "Where is what?"

"Elijah's consciousness?" the witch asks, her eyes as black as the flame but confusion clear in her tone, "Where is his soul?"

Katherine stomps her foot and spins away from her, marching down the aisle and- eager for an excuse- Kieran follows her,

"I don't understand," he confesses, as they descend the steps into the moonlit night, "Is Elijah…dead?"

Katherine shakes her head, checks her phone and Kieran sees her engagement ring glittering on her finger as if it had never been removed,

"Doubt it, if I had to guess, I'd say Klaus lost his temper and finally daggered him," she sighs, "But we can't remove the hex while he's daggered, so I'll have to go convince him to wake him up."

With a haggard sigh, as if this was all an inconvenience to her, she set off towards Bourbon St and after a moment, he followed her.

* * *

There is a gun in Francesca's desk drawer.

It was one inch from her hand and would take ten seconds at most for her to open the drawer, grab the small revolver, aim it at her heart and pull the trigger.

The question was, would those ten seconds be too _long_?

Would Celeste have time to react?

Would her brothers be able to rush to her defense?

Would they be able to kill the witch?

Francesca contemplates this within thirty seconds of silence, as Celeste DuBois stood in her office, divested of her disguise and no longer hiding the madness in her eyes.

Or was it worse than that, was the madness actually zealotry?

Which was the greater threat?

Either way, Elijah Mikaelson's desiccating corpse was now lying on her couch. His eyes watching and condemning them as his fingers- the last parts of him able to move- twitched constantly.

Oliver, who had been summoned by Celeste to drag him in, was standing at his feet, his arms crossed as he vibrated with energy,

"We can't leave him here," he points out, breaking the furiously tense silence that had reigned ever since they had entered the room.

"Rebekah will be back at some point and…"

Francesca turned her sharp, animalistic gaze on him,

"At some point?" she asks in a frighteningly emotionless tone, "She's not here now? When you were supposed _to keep her here?!_"

She finishes her sentence shrieking as she rises to her feet and Oliver shrinks back from her fury before his manhood reasserts himself,

"If I'd tried keeping her here against her will, she would have suspected something or hell, even killed me and where would we be then, huh?"

Better off, Francesca thinks to herself before turning to the window and running a hand through her hair.

They weren't prepared.

Katherine Pierce was too newly exiled; she wasn't completely isolated yet. Vincent had Caroline Forbes but he wouldn't have had time to get her out of the state, to a location where Klaus Mikaelson could be lured into an ambush. Rebekah hadn't been convinced to join them in taking down her family or spelled into desiccation, much like her brother who could now only move his eyes helplessly.

He had been kidnapped and his brother would figure that out soon enough and come looking for him.

If he wasn't on his way already because somebody must have seen him being dragged away by Oliver.

Thanks to Celeste, they were out of time.

She draws out her phone and texts her brothers.

"We'll have to attack tonight," she announces, when they've gathered in the room,

"There'll be humans at the new Abattoir, you can kill them to trigger the curses and then we can move on Bourbon St. The goal is to capture his son, we can use him as leverage against his mother's pack, keep them in line until we kill him. Klaus will have to be dismembered quickly so he can't kill anyone or retaliate."

Her brothers and their men nod and she is satisfied that they can follow instructions at least.

"Let's go." She orders, leading the way out the door, deliberately putting as much distance between Celeste, Oliver and herself. Her oldest brother climbs into the car beside her and she takes a moment to exhale,

"Whatever happens tonight, bring me the head of the witch and the wolf. They're too stupid to live."

He nods.

"Okay."

* * *

Celeste waited until everyone had left before sitting on the couch and leaning down to see Elijah's face. His eyes darted to her before looking away and she clicks her tongue, reaching up to stroke his cold, veined cheek,

"I am sorry that the shard of white oak pains your heart, mon cher," she whispers lovingly,

"Once all this is done, once that little Bulgarian bitch is dead, you and I shall be together again, free to love one another."

Her hand strays down to his neck, his collarbone, exposed by the shirt and she sighs, remembering all the times she had touched his naked chest. She brushes her fingers over the skin now, feeling a twinge of lust.

"You were not to know," she chides gently, "However, it was Katherine Pierce who killed me that first time, yes," she adds, nodding when his eyes come back to her,

"I myself did not know this until I saw her many years later, the night that she killed Marcel, yet it was her who came upon me when I was bathing and held me under the water until I drowned. Une petite sauvage."

She kissed his clammy lips and hummed with delight, "Soon, mon cher, I shall be taking my baths again while you worship me and try to lure me to your bed, will that not be everything?"

Elijah's eyes leave her face, gazing once again on the windows visible to him and she leaves with a twinge of annoyance at his stubbornness.

Still, he would love her once the whore was dead.

* * *

Klaus looked up at the moonlit sky, the stars barely visible even now, lost in the light pollution of New Orleans. In the flashy multicolored bulbs and strobes that painted the pavement, the stench of liquor, garbage, foods and vomit making an arid aroma that was detectable even with the numerous flower pots and vines that grew across his balcony.

Still, it was the stench of life and one he found comfort in as he sipped at his tumbler of whisky and pretended to be a part of it.

Perhaps he could bully Raina into watching a movie with him on the Netflix later? She was just putting Erik to bed now, but she couldn't be too tired, even if his son had been somewhat tetchy at supper, throwing his spoon down frequently and grumbling constantly.

Such a wicked thing he could be when he set his mind to it.

Klaus did love him for that.

He senses her before he sees her, and leans on the balcony railing, spotting Rebekah striding through the crowd and walking through the archway like a Queen storming into her Court.

He doesn't bother to tell her where he is, she can find him easily and does so, appearing at his side mere moments later.

"Come to play Cleopatra once again, little sister?" he taunts, lifting the tumbler to his lips but it's smacked out of his hand and sent flying across the way to smash to smithereens against a hotel wall.

"Usually when I betray you, it's because you've bloody deserved it," Rebekah snaps, her temper so easy to rile, but just as quickly as it flared, it dies down again,

"But this time, I'm here to help."

Without his drink to distract him, he turns around, leaning his back against the railing,

"_Oh?_" he raises an eyebrow, "How pray tell, will you help me? Perhaps a summons to Mikael? The shedding of the doppelgangers very useful blood? Conspiring with whichever enemy is still stupid enough to think they can stand against me and survive?"

Rebekah inhales sharply through her nose, gritting her teeth,

"I knew you would be like this," she seethes, "But Nik, this is bigger than your bloody ego. I've been walking around and thinking about it all day and, you were right, something is off with Elijah and whomever lit that fire at Farnese's used magic to do it and Ollie…" she stops and closes her eyes briefly, bracing herself,

"I think he's been playing me."

Klaus resists the urge to roll his eyes at the last piece of information, and lets her continue,

"Someone or something is coming at us, Nik," she explains, "Taking us out, one by one, and why would anyone be stupid enough to try that?"

He barely needs to think it over, "Because they would have a kingdom to gain," he answers, growling, "There's a bloody coup coming!"

She nods and is about to say something when her eyes drift over his shoulder,

"I think it's already here."

He turns and follows her gaze.

A pack of men, dressed in jeans and leather are making their way down Bourbon St. They're moving silently, quickly, without speaking and knocking aside anyone who gets in their way.

They're headed straight for the manor and there's no time to bar the gates.

One of them breaks away from the pack and does a running leap, up a car and onto a telephone pole. He climbs up to the very top and looks down at the street before reaching for the box and driving his fist through it.

The French Quarter is plunged into darkness.

The lights go off behind him and his son begins to wail.

He grabs his sister's arm, "Come." he orders, racing through the house to the nursery, where Raina is already bending over the cot to try and comfort Erik. He grabs her roughly by the shoulder and scoops his son up, blanket and all, pushing him into her arms, and bundling them from the room.

"There's a passage that was installed during Prohibition," he explains, pressing his mouth to her ear as they clamber down the inner staircase, hoping they won't be overheard.

"It goes under Bourbon St and leads to the old docks opposite Algiers Point."

They reach the cellar and Rebekah moves past him to reach up, to the lever hidden behind the stone pillar where the secret door was. It creaks open under protest and she pulls it until it's wide enough for Raina to slip through.

"Take my son and get to Algiers Point," he orders her, "If you can't find Katherine Pierce, take the car at her house and drive it the hell out of Louisiana," he pushes his wallet into her hands,

"Don't stop until you hit an ocean and stay hidden until I call you."

She nods and his heart breaks as he turns to his son, pressing a fierce kiss to his forehead,

"I swear, we will be together again," he lies to him, "I love you more than anything in the world."

With a weak smile, Raina and Erik disappear into the darkness and he and Rebekah close the door behind them. When they leave the cellar, he breaks one of the casks and jams the metal rim into the lock of the door, so that it would have to be broken down if anyone wished to enter.

He and Rebekah march to the courtyard just as the bullets begin flying and as they dart behind the pillars, Klaus sneaks a glance and sees the yellow eyes and fangs.

Newly turned werewolves.

Rebekah had been right.

Fortunately, she didn't have the time to say 'I told you so' before they looked at each other with matching grins of feral delight and threw themselves into battle.

* * *

A/N- Hope that was a good read.


	26. Annabelle II Katherine VII Caroline

A/N- I'm hoping to get this finished asap.

* * *

In spite of everything, Annabelle Mason was enormously glad to finally be returning to civilization.

Even if it was a college campus.

She parked her car, killed the engine and slipped on her heels, stepping out of the car she straightened her jacket and looked around the area.

Students, civilians and a security guard who clearly cared little for his job.

There was nobody watching her.

Well, almost nobody.

Ashley is on the lookout for her, she sees her standing across the way and cuts a path towards her, her no-nonsense attitude ensuring nobody would step in front of her or slow her down.

They were expecting her in the café by the parking lot, at the outdoor tables which at this time of day provided them with privacy but also the ability to see any threats approach and multiple exit strategy.

None of them had ordered any coffee but there was a large pitcher of water on the table where a young blonde woman sat with her ankles crossed.

In the last six hours, Caroline Forbes had been stalked, attacked, threatened and dealt with treachery and despite this, still held herself together, rising politely and shaking Annabelle's hand.

She was able to handle herself under duress.

Annabelle could see why Klaus Mikaelson had been subtly setting her up to take on the role of New Orleans Vampire Queen since her arrival in the city.

"Thank-you for agreeing to speak with me, Ms. Forbes," Annabelle begins as she pours herself a glass of water, "I know you've had a horrid day."

Caroline shrugs, "I've had worse but if you could start talking, that'd be great."

She holds up one finger in a waiting gesture and drinks deeply, "Sorry, my throat is parched, I will gladly explain everything, interrupt me if you have any questions."

"My name is Annabelle Mason, during the Industrial Revolution the majority of my family was wiped out by vampires, one survived and was kept as a pet for years before being turned, much to their displeasure. Before this, they fathered a child who became a vampire hunter and founded a league of hunters, fellow victims of the supernatural, yet for every vampire they killed another twenty could be created in the space of one night. They eventually realized that rather than trying to eradicate the supernatural, they should be trying to find a way to manage them…"

"I don't mean through enslavement, or threats of any kind." She adds hastily when she sees Caroline's eyes darken, "It wasn't until quite recently that we had any significantly suitable plan to carry out and in fact, it was the Mikaelson's conquering New Orleans that gave us the idea."

"You want to set up a hierarchy?" Caroline guesses, still sounding very unimpressed but Annabelle shakes her head,

"When the Original family returned to Mystic Falls, and stayed there long enough, we sent someone to investigate, to gather knowledge which is how we found out about your town Council. As I'm sure you're aware, the supernatural world does tend to tilt towards the chaotic end of the spectrum and there is very little direction within it, battles are frequently fought, there aren't any laws and really, nobody in charge of stopping reality from being altered and the dead resurrected whenever anybody gets a strange idea in their head. My family has been gathering resources and set up bases around the world for two hundred years, we would like the Original's to work with us to set up a means of policing the supernatural. An international council that will agree upon rules and means of enforcing them."

Caroline raises an eyebrow and scoffs, a smile on her face as she looks away, "_Seriously?!_ You think that you'll be able to convince Klaus to…"

"Essentially take over the supernatural world on a global scale as opposed to ruling one tiny city in the United States of America?" Annabelle countered,

"Well, if I had more time I would be able to convince even _you_ but as matters stand, it appears that you will shortly be needing our help."

Caroline bit her lip thoughtfully and crossed her arms, no longer so standoffish or dismissive,

"Why?"

"When someone is on the outside, observing everything from a distance, they are able to get a much clearer picture," Annabelle explains,

"Everything that has been happening in New Orleans recently? It was all connected, an attack on the Original family, an attempt to overthrow their rule."

Caroline's about to answer but her phone starts buzzing and takes it out, a small frown on her face becoming frantic as she reads the message.

"I have to go." she says, standing up so quickly that her chair is pushed back three feet and screeches against the concrete. She's about to flash away but Annabelle quickly takes a business card out of her sleeve,

"Call me if you need anything at all." She entreats her, feeling a burst of satisfaction when the card is lifted from her fingers and she sits back, watching as the blonde disappears into the night. When the sound of tires screeching against the asphalt fades, Jesse and Ashley sit down at the table.

"How did Caroline take the revelation of your deception?" she asks, turning to Jesse and he shrugs,

"She wasn't happy but didn't try to kill me so I'm taking that as a win."

"I reckon you were right though," Ashley interjects, "She'll come around and make the family see reason."

"Provided she survives whatever is currently happening." Annabelle sighs, "One of you get Scarlet Rose on the phone and find out what apocalyptic chaos is blowing up the supernatural social calendar."

* * *

St Bartholomew's Eve.

The march on Versailles.

The attack on Atlanta.

Bloody Sunday.

Katherine knew all too well the sounds of battle. How often had she thrown herself into the eye of the storm and reveled in the death and destruction around her?

What she loved even more was the aftermath, when silence fell and she could watch those who mere hours before had been as bloodthirsty as her.

She could watch as the realization dawned in their eyes and on their faces. The horror of their own actions.

The disgust as they discovered the darkest parts of themselves, as they found that all that separated them from the monsters of nightmares were that they continued to exist even after sunrise.

She had liked to pick out one of these undergoing this epiphany and follow them, watching avidly but silently as they went to find a quiet place to kill themselves.

That had been her favorite part, second only to finding those with no remorse, those who celebrated in their monstrosity and showing them what a real monster looked like.

Even now that she was no longer a vampire, she still had that tingling sensation of excitement race up her spine and make her hair stand on end. She looks up ahead but sees only the alleyway, only darkness.

The powerlines had been cut.

A step behind her, Father Kieran is breathing rapidly, going through the fight or flight response and visibly choosing to fight.

She's not sure how much help he'll be.

She picks up her pace, throwing her phone into her handbag and hoping that if she moves her feet quickly enough that her heels won't catch on anything or trip her up as she navigates the path that was more broken glass and debris than actual concrete.

Her foot does catch something just as she emerges from the alleyway, into Bourbon St and she stumbles, grabbing a drain pipe to keep herself steady as she swings onto the most famous road in the city.

She catches a glimpse of a man starting to look in her direction before she's yanked backwards by her arm and falls, the world spinning before she lands against something heavy.

Father Kieran picks her up and holds her, "Sorry," he apologizes, "But I'm not sure you want to go out there."

She hears gunfire and a low-level explosion, forcing her to agree with him.

"No prize for guessing who's on the wrong end of those bullets," she snorts, before crossing her arms and sighing, "Here's hoping he has his phone on him."

She has Klaus listed on her phone under _Santa K_. It had originally been Satan but Elijah had insisted that she change it, he'd also had an issue with himself being listed as _Erotic E_ but been forced to settle for Klaus' name change.

Despite the ongoing attack, Katherine can hear his ringtone in the distance and he answers,

"_Hi_," he shouts, "_hang on a second_."

Katherine waits patiently while horrific screams filter through the phone and are followed by what sounds like one-handed four-limbed dismemberment.

"_Please tell me you're not under attack as well!_" Klaus pants and she shakes her head,

"Nope, but I'm putting my money on the manor catching fire at some point tonight."

He growls, "_I wouldn't bet against you._"

Another scream and a burst of gunfire, "_I've sent Erik to safety, I told Raina to find you but if she couldn't do that than to steal your car and drive, gather up all the vampires loyal to me and get them together, if Rebekah and I aren't with you in an hour, I want you to send them to come get us_."

"What about Elijah?" Katherine asks, noting the absence of his name and Klaus catches his breath,

"_I'm sorry, I don't know where he is._"

"What about Caroline?" Katherine continues and waits while an explosion reverberates on the other end,

"_She's in the dorms,_" Klaus manages, coughing around the dust, "_Don't tell her what's happening…I have to go but don't text Caroline!_"

"Got it." She sings as she hangs up and looks to Father Kieran,

"You're going to text Caroline?" He guesses and she nods,

"I'm gonna text Caroline…shit," she curses as she realizes her error, "Right after I text my daughter."

She notes the surprise on the priest's face, "Oh yeah, I have a daughter, weird right?"

* * *

_From: Katherine 'Nadia, stuff going down in Quarter, stay home and out of trouble, love you and talk to you soon, your mother.'_

_From: Katherine 'Caroline, Klaus and co. under attack, get to St Anne's Church asap'_

* * *

Erik was squirming in Raina's arms, burying his face against her breast to muffle his whimpers of fear and she can only thank god that he's not screaming his head off, because it was going to be hard enough getting him to safety without their enemies being able to pick up on the noise they could have been making.

The passage Klaus had sent her down clearly hadn't been used since the Prohibition, it was covered in dust and rat corpses, spider webs and rodent droppings and she holds her breath, praying that the door at the other end of the passage will open.

Her hope flickers when the darkness becomes absolute and when she reaches the door, she kicks and pushes it with all her strength before running her hand along it searchingly and finding a padlock.

A rusted over, flaking around the edges padlock but no matter how she pulls on it, it doesn't budge.

Erik presses his fists to his eyes and she kisses the crown of his head,

"It's okay baby," she lies, stroking his back soothingly, "We're going to be fine."

On a whim, she takes her phone out of her pocket. If she walked back down the passage, she could possibly get reception and call Cary for help. But there was the huge risk that if she did that, she could encounter whoever it was that had been coming for Klaus.

But if she stayed here, chances were they'd find her sooner or later…

She huffed and looked down at Erik, for a wild second wondering if she couldn't put him down, wrap him in her jacket and leave him at the door while she went to make the call.

In theory, there shouldn't be any threat to him here but in reality…

She could see him picking up and eating one of the rodent corpses with such ease that she clenched him to her a little tighter.

"Erik," she whispered, "I need you to be very quiet, okay baby?"

Erik doesn't respond, only exhaling a shuddering breath and she really hopes tonight doesn't have lasting ramifications for the poor kid.

Oh well, at least Klaus could afford the best therapy for him.

She walks back along the tight passage as quickly as she can, keeping her ears strained for sounds of anyone approaching and she has already typed a text to Cary and pressed send, the wheel turning and turning, trying to connect and when she sees the weak light that lets her know she's nearing the cellar, it finally lights up and the little sent message on her screen.

She sighs with relief and leans against the wall to wait, closing her eyes and wondering if she could just stay there until Cary came with the cavalry.

Except, like all the rest of the plans she'd made that night, it goes up in flames.

Or rather, in smoke.

She can smell smoke.

Worse, she can hear people on the other side of the door.

Their voices are muffled but she can just make out one guy who has a deeper pitch than the rest,

"I'm telling you…he's down here, I can smell him."

Dammit.

Her phone isn't on silent.

She realizes that one fraction of a second too late.

Ding.

She's running down the passage before she even looks at the screen, resisting the urge to scream in terror as she hears the thudding and crashing noise of the attackers tearing apart the wine cellar to try and find Erik. Terrified, she runs her hand along the walls, ignoring the splinters and webs and hoping there's another path or a niche that she missed, somewhere for them to hide.

There isn't and when the werewolves break down the hidden door. They're trapped.

Her phone ends up on the ground, splattered with blood and is forgotten amidst the struggles and the screams.

From: Cary _'Stay hidden, will be there soon'_

* * *

Nadia hadn't really planned out her evening, nothing beyond a quick snack of whomever took her fancy and then reconvene with her mother at St Anne's Church.

Of course she could have been there with her mother and Scarlet Rose for the ceremony but she hadn't really wanted to be.

After all, considering how Elijah had treated her mother, she didn't really care if he spent the rest of his life utterly mad.

Yes, he had been hexed but considering the psychological torture, numerous attempts on her life and all the trials she'd suffered during her human years in the harem, she figured that if he'd really loved her mother, he would have been able to resist for her sake.

But he hadn't.

He had _hit_ her and thrown her onto the street.

Brooding on this, Nadia had torn a little deeply into the throat of the man she'd been feeding on and lost herself momentarily in the feed.

Unfortunately, that moment had nearly cost her dearly.

But a lifetime as Valide Sultana in the Ottoman harem had sharpened and honed her instincts, so when the attack comes from behind her, she has a dagger buried deep into the creature's chest before she can even determine what it was she had just killed.

Strangely enough, it looked human and she withdraws her dagger with a frown, licking at the blood dripping down the blade curiously before sticking out her tongue and wrinkling her nose in disgust.

It tasted supernaturally disgusting. She snorts to herself and wonders if she'd made a pun before a scream to her left draws her back into the moment.

A human has just been gunned down and the killer is howling in agony as he drops to this knees, turning his face to the ceiling and Nadia pauses, watching him in concern, trying to figure out what is happening when his eyes go yellow and she takes a step back.

"Werewolves," she calls once, before remembering that her whisper isn't enough in this crowd,

"_Werewolves!_" she shouts, her voice cutting across the music pumping through the speakers.

Vampires turned to look in her direction, a few of the compelled humans nearby being left swaying on their feet, dazed and confused. One of them, a young woman, looks over at her with a hint of a smile on her lips.

She's mown down in gunfire and the vampires immediately begin backing away as another werewolf begins the transition.

Dammit.

Nadia's head whips around quickly and she makes out the emergency exit, "Follow me." she orders, leading the vampires from the building.

She cautiously sticks her head out the door and scans the area, seeing no-one in sight before walking out and ushering everyone after her. The werewolves don't follow them, but the humans continue to be murdered where they stand.

"We should stay and fight!" a man shouts and a few cheer, looking blood-thirsty and eager to show off their strength.

Vampires that had just fed were always slightly on the stupid side. Nadia only rolls her eyes and begins walking away,

"Be my guest, but avoid those werewolf teeth unless you're personal friends with Klaus Mikaelson."

She takes her phone out of her pocket and sees she has a message from her mother,

_From: Katherine- 'Nadia, stuff going down in Quarter, stay home and out of trouble, love you and talk to you soon, your mother.'_

She hears footsteps behind her and turns to see that most of the vampires have begun following her, she sighs, "Very well, come."

One of them clears her throat and keeps pace beside her, "We're we going?"

Nadia doesn't pause for a moment, figuring that her mother would have had the same idea that was now running through her mind, "St Anne's Church."

* * *

Every part of Caroline wanted to go to the Bourbon St manor, wanted to pull her car right into the courtyard, climb out and look for her boyfriend.

She wanted to make sure that he was okay.

She'd settled for texting him.

_From: Caroline 'Hey, spending a boring night studying in the library- wish exam time was over so I could be with you instead xoxo.'_

She figured that would either reassure her boyfriend or convince whomever had taken him to try and find her at Tulane, so if nothing else, they'd be wasting time looking for her.

Better still, if they looked for her in the library they might set off some kind of security.

St Anne's Church has all the lights on and Caroline can see people milling about on the steps when she double-parks her car in the street and grabs her purse, clutching it to her as she hurries across the grounds.

Katherine appears in the doorway and smirks when she sees her, "Looking good, Forbes."

Katherine Pierce speak for _'I'm glad you're okay'_

She throws an arm around her and pulls her in for a quick hug, ignoring her grunt of disapproval,

"What's happening?" she demands, pulling back and looking around frantically, "Who…_ow_!"

Katherine had stomped on her foot with all her human strength,

"Not here," she hissed under her breath, "Come on."

She takes her hand and drags her along the aisle, past the altar and into a side door, into a little room that appears to be Father Kieran's office and Caroline sniffs as she smells sage.

"Okay…what is going on?" she demands, "Is Klaus…?"

"Obviously not or you wouldn't still be here." Katherine snaps, rummaging around and taking a bottle of sacramental wine from the cupboard, she rips off the top and takes a quick pull, wiping her mouth, "Here," she offers, "This might help with what I'm about to tell you."

Caroline once heard Katherine Pierce- the same girl in front of her- threaten to break up with Elijah because he'd tried to help himself to 'her' bottle of champagne. So the fact that she's sharing now has Caroline's arm pits tingly with the sweat she can no longer produce.

She swallows, takes a long gulp of wine and forces it down her throat, coughing slightly,

"Okay…" she gasps, "What's wrong?"

"Short answer? Everything." Katherine sighs, perching herself on the window sill, gripping it with her hands, "Long answer? Klaus and Rebekah were attacked at Bourbon St and I'm guessing were either captured or left inside the building to have it burnt down around their ears, so they're gonna be out of the game for a while. And no, you can't go rescue them because there was an army there to take them down and I'm guessing they'd love the chance to gain leverage over Klaus. Oh, speaking of, Erik and Raina are on the run and nobody is quite sure where my ex-fiancé is."

Caroline pinches the bridge of her nose, "Um…okay," she stresses out the word, "So what are we going to do? If the Originals are all…whatever, who's in charge?"

Katherine smirks, "That's where this night gets fun, Care, because that'd be you."

Her laughter dies on her lips when she sees that she isn't joking, "_Seriously?!_" she snaps, "I can't be in charge, I'm not…half the people out there don't know me and I don't know them and you probably do so…"

"Everyone out there knows me as the woman that Elijah Mikaelson threw out onto the street, the shamed Princess sent into exile across the river. The reason Giacomo…" she chokes on the name, "The reason a good man is dead. They won't follow me, not all of them, those that would be willing to would be arguing with the others and we wouldn't achieve anything. I'm sorry Caroline Forbes, but as Klaus' girlfriend, you're the closest this town and our world has to a queen and when the king is away, the queen becomes regent."

Caroline is shaking her head and runs her hands through her hair, "I can't…I don't even know what I'm _doing_!"

Katherine smirked, "Trust me, I've known a lot of queens, biblically and otherwise, most of them didn't know what they were doing. All you really have to do is go out there and speak with authority. You can ask questions but don't take any bullshit. Someone questions you, you cut them down- literally if necessary."

Caroline gulps and tries not to hyperventilate, "I'll need your help." She begs and Katherine pushes herself up, striding across the room and taking her shoulders in her hands,

"You have it," she promises, "I'll be right beside you the entire time."

She steps forward and brushes her lips against hers gently, offers her a brief comfort before she releases her, "Ready to be a queen?"

No.

Caroline forces her lips into a smile and her body to stop trembling,

"Sure," She lies in her head cheerleader voice, "Oh wait!" she draws her phone out of her purse, "I have to make a quick call."

Five minutes later, Katherine walks out of the office first, strutting to the altar and grabbing a candlestick as she walks past, she slams it down on the marble three times, "Shut up and listen." she shouts.

Caroline follows behind her and fidgets once before forcing her hands to her sides. The church is filled with vampires, gathered together in groups or on their phones, some in fancy clothes and some who'd clearly just rolled out of bed. There's one brunette woman sitting in a pew as if it's a throne and staring pointedly at Katherine before turning her gaze to her.

They all look to her and she's glad that her heart can't thump loudly in her chest anymore.

"Klaus has been attacked," she begins, her voice catching slightly and she clears her throat and holds her head up high,

"Your king was attacked tonight and the manor on Bourbon St was set on fire. Now, some of you won't give a damn about Klaus personally, but whoever it is that's doing this? They won't want to just chase the Original vampires out of town, but all of us and they probably won't be opposed to killing us first. So, I'm sorry, but tonight, we're going to have to fight for our territory and our homes. If that's a problem then you're welcome to leave but I personally wouldn't ever try to return, the Mikaelson's have issues with cowards, those that stay? You'll be rewarded, I'm not sure how exactly yet, but I'll make sure that you are. Questions?"

She receives a roomful of blank stares and is worried people are going to walk out en masse before one woman, Countess Salisbury, raises her hand, "Forgive me, darling, but how exactly shall we be fighting? With our hands or with weaponry?"

Caroline smiles at her, "With an army."

* * *

Every part of Elijah's body, every inch of skin, every single blood vessel, every strand of hair was burning in agony.

It was torture beyond description, beyond imagination and he wanted to die.

But that was not an option.

Because if he died, Katerina would die as well.

She would be hurt.

And he couldn't allow that. He would not fail her. Not again.

So, though he wasn't able to breathe, he allowed himself the space of ten breaths, ten last seconds of inaction before he began screaming in his mind, forcing himself to move.

One miniscule movement at a time, tiny millimeter by tiny millimeter, pain and only pain until at last he was in a sitting position and something within him snapped.

Once you'd broken past the final barrier of pain, there was a point where the anguish became pleasurable.

He'd heard this recounted by the criminally, irreparably insane and he is glad of its truth, because he is able to raise himself to his feet.

He is moving woodenly, like a toy soldier but he can move.

If he can move, he can fight.

If he can fight for himself, he can fight for Katerina.


	27. Caroline, Klaus, Cary, Francesca

A/N- Getting to the action now.

* * *

Caroline stood on the steps of St Anne's Church, the adrenaline coursing through her veins was making the wait unbearable.

She wanted to _run_, to _scream_, to _fight_ and to _kill_.

But doing any of those things right now would be suicide.

Katherine comes out and stands beside her but almost immediately begins shivering in the cold air.

She never seemed to dress warmly enough, usually favoring fashion over comfort and would steal Elijah's suit jacket when she decided she was done looking hot and feeling cold.

Except that he wasn't with them now to chide her while draping his jacket over her shoulders and rubbing her arms affectionately before stepping away and going back to whatever he'd been doing.

He wasn't with them and nobody knew where he was.

"I'm sure he's fine." Caroline blurted, eager for something to say and Katherine smiled,

"Of course he's fine," she replies, "They'd need a white oak stake to kill him and we would have noticed by now if he was dead."

Caroline realized that they weren't talking about the same Mikaelson brother,

"I meant Elijah," she explains and Katherine winces,

"He better be," she mutters darkly, "Otherwise I'll kill him myself."

The French Quarter had been cleared of civilians by the chief of police who knew about the supernatural and was pulling rank to claim that a gas leak had happened.

Obviously, there would be questions later about the gun shots and grenades that must have been heard by the humans but for now, everyone was just doing their best with what they had.

Which was why the music had stopped. All music across the quarter, no jazz, no pop, no vinyl, no bands, not even a radio had been left on.

Caroline wondered when was the last time the Quarter had fallen silent?

Probably Katrina.

She takes a moment to be thankful that at least this time they wouldn't have to worry about flooding and then she sees the bright light crawling over the brick buildings and highlighting the white lines on the road.

They had arrived.

The motorcade pulls up and Caroline allows herself a grim smile as Annabelle Mason steps out of the first car and nods to her politely.

She has to climb the steps to speak to her, because the night becomes noisy with the sounds of people filing from the cars and marching to the trunks where they pulled out protective gear and weapons.

Enough weapons for a small army.

Caroline's army.

"Thanks." she tells Annabelle, who offers her hand to shake,

"Of course, Caroline, I'm more than glad to do you and Klaus this favour."

Favour.

But Caroline had known that this wouldn't be a gift, that Annabelle would expect her to pay her back in some way, however, she hadn't really had a choice, and besides it wasn't like Caroline herself was uber powerful- Annabelle would only care about getting something from her as long as Klaus was alive and willing to do anything for her.

She leads Annabelle and the spare cache of weapons inside where the vampires are gathered,

"Anyone who knows how to fire a gun or work a grenade help yourself," she orders, before turning to the mercenaries and pulling the tourist map she'd grabbed from a nearby information desk from her pocket.

"See here," she holds the map to the leader, pointing at the area she'd marked in pen, "That is the Cauldron, it's the area where the strongest concentration of witches is, I want you to go stake out there and- if I give the order- I want you to put as many bullets in the buildings as you can."

The man looks at her silently but she doesn't stop, "Don't aim specifically for people but create as much damage as possible."

Katherine had left her side to help herself to a dagger but returns when she hears her orders,

"Care?" she whispers under her breath; current Katherine speak for 'Are you insane?'

"I am done playing nice with witches," Caroline explains, "They don't want to live with vampires, fine. But they can't just keep attacking us and think that we're not going to fight back. How many warnings have they had now?"

Katherine gives her a grim smile, "I agree with you one hundred percent," she says, a little louder than necessary so the vampires across the church can hear her,

"I only wish we could light them up like it was sixteenth century Smithfield in here."

Caroline wants to shake her head at the gruesome thought but if it meant keeping her friends and loved ones safe?

Who knew what she was willing to do anymore.

"You all need to come with me," she announces, wishing she'd phrased that better or sounded more regal but it worked at least,

"We're going to find Klaus and Rebekah and kill anyone in our way."

* * *

When Cary had received the call from Raina, he had stolen a car and broken every traffic law to get to the location she had sent him.

He had still been too late.

The werewolf part of him wants to comfort himself thinking that the shattered phone and the torn bits of wall in the underground passage mean that Raina put up a real fight and maybe killed one of her attackers but the human part of him knows better.

She would never have risked Erik's safety like that. She would rather have been captured and still be with the kid than dead and him alone.

Especially considering what had happened in his life already.

He stares in horror at the phone and clutches it in his hand, pretending that he could reach out and find Raina.

That he could protect her and the future of his pack.

But he _can't_.

Not as a werewolf anyway.

But as a human?

He gets back above ground, emerging in the overgrown grass and broken bottles of the riverside where the passage led out, he'd had to force the old door open with a crowbar which now lay in two pieces, he keeps the sharper half in his hand. The second he has a signal he rings Annabelle who answers immediately,

"The child?" she asks and he shakes his head,

"Gone," he blurts quickly, "Both Erik and Raina have been taken. What about Klaus?"

"Caroline Forbes and Katherine Pierce are about to lead an army to recover him," She answers, "But I'm going to ring Scarlet and have her meet you at the corner of Bourbon and Conti, the only thing you two have to worry about tonight is finding Erik and keeping him safe."

A part of him wants to point out that Annabelle Mason is not his Alpha, she's not his boss and the whole point of the secret meetings he'd been having with her, Raina and Scarlet was that they were all equals.

Except that right now, it is some small measure of comfort to not have to be the one making the decisions and taking the fall if everything goes wrong.

So, he promises that he'll be at the rendezvous point in twenty minutes, hangs up the phone and starts heading to Conti St at a dead run.

On a hunch, he leaves his car stranded and when he nears the Quarter his hunch is confirmed. Police barricades have been set up with media outlets, tourists, locals and curious bystanders filling the road, some shouting questions, others shouting insults, complaining and demanding their rights be upheld.

Cary runs a hand through his hair, breathing in the night air and looking about for another way to get through.

He can't go back through the passage, whoever had attacked the Mikaelson's could have left someone there to pick off the rescue effort.

He can't push his way through, he doesn't have any friends in the police force, he doesn't have an address in Bourbon St and he can't fight this many cops this publicly.

What are his options?

A hand grabs his arm and yanks and suddenly he's flying through the air and landing in an alleyway, scrambling to stay on his feet and throwing out his hands to catch his balance,

"Cary?" An accented voice asks, his attacker stepping into the shadows with him,

"You're Scarlet's wolf?"

The woman is a vampire at least, and he reckons that there aren't any vampires in New Orleans stupid enough to have gone to war with the Original family so he nods, "Yeah, you're a friend of hers?"

The woman nods, her brunette ponytail bouncing behind her and Cary notes that she looks slightly familiar,

"When she found out that I was on the wrong side of the barricades, she told me to find you. Apparently, you are on a rescue mission?"

He looks up at the long brick walls of the alleyway, "I won't be unless I can get into Bourbon St and figure out where I have to be."

The woman takes his arms, pinning them to his sides with a wicked grin on her face, "The trick is not to tense up."

Before he can figure out what she means, he's flying through the air again, up this time, up several feet and then across and by sheer miracle, he rolls when he lands on the rooftop, lessening the impact that he can only pray he won't be feeling until after everything is done.

The woman lands next to him with admirable and predatory grace, looking over the edge of the building to see if they've been spotted. When she's satisfied that they're hidden, she holds out a hand to help him up, "My name is Nadia," she introduces as he's pulled to his feet, "Nadia Petrova."

Oh.

_That's_ why she looked familiar.

"Nice to meet you. Cary." He offers, slightly winded and notes with a small touch of instinctive anxiety that vampires were following them, a good dozen at least, landing on the roof with supernatural silence.

Nadia follows his gaze and gives him a grim smile but a nonchalant shrug,

"It is not a unit of Janissaries, but it'll do."

And truth be told, whatever happened tonight, he'd rather be risking the lives of vampires than his pack.

He nods, hoping his determination hides his youth and the fact that he'd never fought in a war like this before, "Good, let's go."

Scarlet is waiting for them in a house on the corner of Conti St, one she'd broken into and was rifling through with abandon.

"This house belongs to the Mikaelson's," she explains, "They only moved out when they needed more space but I'm hoping they left something here we can use…"

Nadia snorts, "Like a semi-automatic weapon? A grimoire? They're vampires, vampires don't use modern weaponry and anything of use they would have taken with them."

Scarlet concedes her point with a sigh, "Then I will have to use magic," she looks out the window to the street with a moue of disgust,

"It shall not be easy, the witches of New Orleans do their best to block magic not their own, but at the very least I can alter the weather slightly. Perhaps create a heavy fog, give you the cover to make an attack?"

"We still have to figure out where this attack of ours is going to take place," Nadia points out and moves to the dining table, standing at the head and pausing for a moment, looking up in momentary confusion and then waving her hand.

Nobody understands the gesture and she snaps her fingers, "I miss the palace," she grumbles,

"Get over here."

Belligerently, the vampires, Cary and Scarlet gather around the table and she uses her nail to carve an X into the wood,

"This is us," she begins, "And this," she carves a straight line, "Is Bourbon St, now imagine the Quarter around that and think- where would you hide a child?"

"And his babysitter," Cary adds quickly, hopefully, "They also took Raina."

Nadia gives him a doubtful look, "You believe that she's still alive?"

He nods because he doesn't want to consider the alternatives, and she seems to accept this,

"Alright, assuming that they haven't had the time to take the two of them out of the city, with the roads being closed off and their stronghold here, where would they be?"

One of the vampires comes forward and smacks a salt shaker down north of the X,

"There's a condemned nightclub here, it caught fire a year ago and nobody's torn it down or developed it yet. The witches have been using it as a storage space or to practise spells, but nothing too hardcore because vampires can still enter the building."

Nadia nods and points to the vampire who had spoken, "Take two people with you and scout the building, if you see anything, report back and we'll join you."

The vampire frowns, "Hey, sweetheart, I'm grateful that you led us out of the club but I'm not…"

Before he can finish she's grabbed him by the back of the neck, thrown him onto the table and has a dagger pressed to his back,

"I am tired of not having my orders followed," she snapped,

"I am in charge because I am the oldest here and the most deadly, if you doubt my willingness to kill you, you should know I am also Katerina Petrova's daughter," she releases him and he staggers back, readjusting his jacket and she looks around,

"Anymore complaints?"

* * *

Klaus Mikaelson was beginning to tire.

And that troubled him.

Because he couldn't remember the last time he had been tired during a battle.

Not that this was an ordinary battle.

He was warring against bloody gun wielding werewolves with flash grenades and the regular grenades that weren't only blinding and deafening his senses, but also destroying centuries old architecture and valuables that were irreplaceable.

Elijah would be bloody ropable.

Klaus gives himself a moment of thankfulness that his older brother wasn't here to see the damage to the building he had spent so much time and effort renovating, although a great part of him was deeply concerned that he didn't know where his big brother was.

It was also the part of him that had one eye trained on Rebekah at all times and his left wrist ready to be bitten into, to offer his blood when she was bitten.

Which she had been four times now.

_Five_ times now.

Three werewolves had just jumped her and she'd thrown off two easily but the third one had sunk his teeth into her shoulder, into the part of skin exposed by her torn clothes. She knocked him into the wall and he scarpered away before she could kill him but the damage had been done.

This was their plan. They were trying to knock Rebekah out of the fight, to leave Klaus vulnerable and take him out and they were closer to achieving their aim than he would prefer to admit.

He flashes over to her and shoves his wrist into her mouth, counteracting the poison but he can feel the toll it's taking on his body, he needs blood and can't exactly call time out to feed.

There probably isn't a human nearby, all the wolves are on vervein- which he discovered about an hour ago- and there wasn't a fridge in the basement containing bags of blood.

This was the first time his families habit of live feeding had been an inconvenience.

Rebekah releases his wrist with a gasp and takes his arm, leading him further into the house- they'd already breached the courtyard, and the adjoining rooms, they'd had to cede them the main hallway and were now retreating to the far corner where Elijah had lovingly set up his library.

If they lost this last bit of territory and any harm came to Elijah's books- they were all dead.

"How many more of them can there bloody be?" Rebekah gasps, ripping a piece of fabric from her shirt and using it to tie her hair back from her face, and Klaus growls,

"We haven't killed that many," he points out, "They're attacking to exhaust us, to leave us vulnerable and weak and fleeing before we manage to kill them."

Rebekah exhales and straightens,

"Right," she reaches over and squeezes his hand, "We'll have to bloody fix that won't we?"

He grins, "There is no-one I would rather at my side."

They brace themselves for the next attack, hearing the werewolves clambering up the stairs, shouting to each other excitedly and the shrill ringing of his phone seems to shock everyone that hears it.

Quickly, knowing the attack will come at any second, he answers without looking to the screen, "Hello?"

"_Hey!_" Caroline's voice manages to fill him with warmth and terrify him,

"_Listen, whatever happens, don't come out to the courtyard until I call for you. This is going to get messy._"

Because he's Niklaus Mikaelson, he speaks without thinking and probably sets any development in this personal relationship back a good five months,

"What the hell are you doing here?!" he demands, "You're supposed to be safe at bloody…"

He hears the gunfire on the other end of the line and the screams, an explosion that rings both from the phone and in his ears, and he has to toss the phone to the side as a contingent of wolves attack him and Rebekah. Two flying at him and snaps the neck of the first one and loses time scrambling with the other, caving his chest in with his knee and looks to his sister who has grabbed the wolf attacking her and his backup, bringing them together with such force that their skulls cave in and blood splatters everywhere.

Blood.

God he's thirsty.

One of the werewolves looks over his shoulder, realizes that the backup isn't arriving and begins to flee.

His innards are ripped out and Klaus punts his body up the hall so that the blood won't be at any risk of spreading into Elijah's library.

Unfortunately, just as the body begins its descent, Caroline appears in the doorway with a look of relief on her face, "There you ar-_ah_!"

The body collides with her and sends her stumbling backwards out onto the staircase and Klaus flashes forward, catching her just as she begins to topple over the railing. His hands are on her thighs and he yanks her towards him, ending with their legs tangled together and his head swims so he leans back against the wall, trying to just catch his balance.

The world goes dark for a moment and he thinks Caroline's hair must be in his eyes but then everything feels as though it's spinning and his hands are decidedly empty and…

_Smack._

He blinks a few times and tries to focus his vision, confused when he sees what is most definitely a ceiling above him, and then part of the ceiling is blocked by an angry Caroline.

His least favourite type of Caroline.

He starts ranking his Caroline's, first place being a toss-up between loving Caroline and horny Caroline and he wonders if naked Caroline gets her own ranking and he giggles at that.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" angry Caroline shouts, shaking his shoulders and he pouts, now that there's a violent Caroline he'll have to figure out the rankings again.

How long should this list be?

Ten is a good number.

He holds up his hands and spreads out his fingers to keep track.

"He's lost too much blood," tired Rebekah informs angry Caroline and Klaus doesn't like tired Rebekah because tired means grumpy and in his family, grumpy quickly becomes violent.

"He needs to feed before he completely loses his mind."

Caroline runs a hand through her hair and curses, biting into her wrist and shoving it in his mouth and Klaus closes his eyes in bliss as the warm, stolen and freely given blood cascades over his tongue and pours down his throat, filling and replenishing his exhausted body and he realizes that his new favourite Caroline is blood-sharing Caroline and…

What the _bloody hell_ is he on about?

Sanity returns to his brain at the same time the blood flow does and he quickly calculates how much blood he'll need to function before cutting off the source, taking Caroline's wrist and momentarily fighting with her as she struggles to keep it in place before winning and pushing her away.

"Thank-you, sweetheart," he murmurs, kissing her palm and putting his hands on the floor to push himself into a standing position. Rebekah and Caroline both hold their own hands out, ready to catch him if he begins to fall again but he's steady and alert so they pull back.

He looks down at the stairs but doesn't want to push his luck yet so he begins moving through the house to the gallery, determinedly not assessing the damage done to his home.

"How many dead?" he asks Caroline, who is walking beside him,

"Vampires that are with me? Three. Werewolves that were attacking you? Most of them. Six got away and I think they were the ringleaders, they were at a car and had the engine running so they must have been planning to bail if things went south."

He accepts this with a nod and steps onto the gallery, looking down at the courtyard turned battlefield that was strewn with bodies that would have to be dealt with and blood that would have to be washed away.

His kingdom.

His castle.

His vengeance would know no bounds.

The vampires are watching him and he nods curtly before noting the weapons in their hands and turning back to his girlfriend, "You led them into battle?"

She gives her quick, eager series of nods, "Me and Katherine, she's taking a call- something about reinforcements."

He takes her shoulders and steals a kiss, smiling with pride, "My Queen."

He's given himself enough time to recover and descends what's left of the staircase to the courtyard, noting with displeasure that all the attackers were dead and thus couldn't be interrogated or made an example of.

Ah well.

He'd make do with their corpses.

He claps the shoulders of the vampires he passes, making note of their faces and offering blood to those who had been bitten. He would reward them when the night was over, show them favour and friendship.

A human woman steps through the arch and Klaus catches her scent before she enters his sight.

Human.

With a heart pumping blood through her veins.

Delicious human.

Edible human.

He grins, baring his teeth and starts forward but Caroline jumps over the railing and stands between him and his meal,

"Klaus, she's working _with_ us," she explains, her feet sliding against the paving as he pushes forward,

"She's the only reason we were able to rescue you so you _can't_ eat her."

With a growl of frustration and lingering hunger, he turns away and focuses on Katherine- another inedible human- coming into the courtyard with a familiar façade on her face.

She was trying to hide her fear.

"What news of my brother?" he inquires, storming right up until he was an inch from her, breathing in the air she exhaled. He knows he can't offer any comfort in his presence but after so many years of enmity between them, his close and threatening proximity would cause adrenaline to race through her body and give her the edge she needed to survive the night.

She gives the merest flicker of her eyelid at his question and instead of posing with her hand on her hip and smirking, she lays a hand on his shoulder.

_Elijah_.

Any air that he had inhaled leaves his body, and he wants to burn her face from his retinas but she insists on remaining in his vision and worse, breaking his heart,

"It's not your brother, my…people called me, these werewolves have Raina and Erik."

No.

His son.

He has lost him again.

Once again, he had broken his promise to keep him safe.

His own failure threatens to crush him, to break him down in a way that centuries of Mikael hunting him had never been able to do.

The woman, the one Caroline had protected comes forward and clears her throat,

"I have also been speaking with Ms Pierce's friends," she offers, in a polite British accent that he places from upper-class London.

"They have his location and are planning to retrieve him but they are worried that reinforcements are on the way."

He turns to her with the savage grin that had made him the very thing of nightmares.

"Reinforcements _are_ on the way," he promises, "Shall we?"

* * *

"Stupid, vampire whore!" Francesca spat as the car eased through the French Quarter,

"How the hell did she get her hands on weapons?!"

Her brother can only shrug as he turns the steering wheel to the left, navigating the armoured vehicle,

"It doesn't matter," he assures her quietly, "We still have the boy."

"And Elijah," Celeste reminds her from the back, "We can regroup and make this work."

Not only had Francesca not been able to capture the two Mikaelson siblings, but because the attack had been foiled, she'd also not had time for Celeste to be executed.

She punches the glove box and releases a scream of frustration before seeing the building where the brat was being held and climbing out of the still moving car.

"Talk to me!" she orders the man who approaches her first,

"We got the kid and his nanny," he reports, "They're inside, and we have armed guards on them and we got the people you were after."

She lets him lead her around the side of the building to the tiny parking lot where a group of scrappily dressed people stand together.

"You're the Crescent pack," Francesca says, marching right up to the one standing one step in front of the rest, "Jackson Parsons?"

He nods but doesn't hold out his hand, "Yeah, and you're the lady that kidnapped Hayley's child."

She keeps her face placid, "We're the werewolf pack who is finally going to chase the vampire scum from New Orleans," she begins,

"And yes, we took the…_Erik_ as leverage to make that happen, but also because he's a peace offering between our two packs. Since Hayley died, you're out of options for alpha's and if you have him, you have a future which is a lot more than you have now."

He blinks slowly and she can read the doubt in his eyes, face and shoulders, "_Really?_" he drawls,

"You're just going to hand him over to us? Just like that?"

She shrugs, "Why not? After all, he's young, he'll forget his father in time and instead of being raised to become a ruthless Mikaelson monster, he can become a good alpha for your pack,"

"Provided you take him now," she adds, "We don't want to waste our time protecting him and taking out the vampires."

Jackson sighs and runs a hand through his shoulder-length hair, "It's not like we really have a choice in the matter," he grumbles, "But okay."

She bites her cheek in frustration and leads him into the building, looking around until she sees the woman sitting in one of the corner booths, bruised and bloodied but determinedly holding the kid in her arms.

She raises her head as they approach and the hatred is radiating off her in waves.

"Hand him over," Francesca orders, the men guarding her pointing their guns at her when she doesn't comply, "_Now!_"

The kid whimpers and buries his face in the woman's neck as she rubs his back soothingly,

"I won't fight," she swears, "But wherever he goes, I go."

Francesca gives a little laugh through her nose, "You think you have the power to make demands right now? Hand him over or we'll put a bullet through your skull while he watches."

The woman bares her teeth at her and Francesca wants to laugh at how ridiculous this powerless bitch looks, but she settles for checking her watch as she snaps her fingers.

"_Ina_," the kid mumbles, "Ina, _stay_."

"Erik," the woman kisses his nose, "Baby, I love you so much and your daddy will come get you soon. Everything is okay."

The brat releases ear-splitting screams as the guard grabs his hips, gripping his nanny's hair with his tiny fists and the other guard has to pry his fingers loose.

He's handed over to Jackson who quickly bundles him out and Francesca turns to watch them leave, glad that at least one thing is going right tonight.

She opens her mouth to issue the kill order but exhales as the air is pushed from her lungs.

By the shard of wood that has been plunged into her back.

"You should have done your research," the nanny hisses in her ear before the guns fire.

* * *

It had been a well-meaning, good Samaritan that had found him.

An elderly man walking his toy poodle had seen the open door and gone to investigate, to make sure all was right in the upper-middle class suburb where neighbours knew each other's names and held Christmas street parties every year.

Elijah regrets that he ate the pet first. That the man had time to know the horrified grief of seeing a beloved pet die and the fear that came with the discovery that monsters were only too real.

It can't have been more than a minute between the time that he tore out the throat of the trusting dog and the time that he drained the life from the man, but it would have been a lifetime of terror for his victim.

Truly he wishes it could have been different, but he had no choice.

He drinks every last drop of the two, dog and man, needing every bit of strength that he can steal from their lives. When he has finished, he climbs to his feet and throws his head back, breathing painlessly for the first time in hours.

He wants to flash from the cursed house but settles for running, he needs to conserve his strength for the fight ahead.

He needs to find his siblings.

He needs to find Katherine.

He stands in the middle of the street and looks towards the French Quarter, seeing only darkness instead of the bright lights that had always graced the night sky.

Still, for the first time in months he knows his way.

He resumes running.

* * *

A/N- Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!


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